The Tax†rate Elasticity of Local Business Profits

Frank Fossen and Viktor Steiner

German Economic Review, 2018, vol. 19, issue 2, 162-189

Abstract: Local business profits respond to local business tax (LBT) rates that vary across municipalities. We estimate that a 1% increase in the LBT rate decreases the LBT base by 0.45%, based on the universe of German LBT return files, which include corporations and unincorporated businesses. However, the fiscal equalization scheme largely compensates municipalities for the loss in the LBT base when they increase the LBT rate. Our estimates suggest that using tax revenue data instead of tax return data, as commonly done in the literature, results in a significant bias of the elasticity away from zero.

Date: 2018
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German Economic Review is currently edited by Bernhard Felderer, Joseph F. Francois, Ivo Welch, Urs Schweizer and David E. Wildasin

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