The Rise and Likely Fall of the German Income Tax, 1958–2005

Giacomo Corneo

CESifo Economic Studies, 2005, vol. 51, issue 1, 159-186

Abstract: Data from official statistics and tax laws are exploited to describe fifty years of income taxation in Germany, with a focus on its role as a fiscal and distributive tool. The temporal pattern that emerges from the data is one of a golden age of the German income tax, followed by a slow shift towards a major crisis. The turning point on the income-tax path seems to have occurred in 1986. I put forward the thesis that this downturn was the outcome of a long-term change in the balance of political power. That change is probably rooted in structural breaks that occurred in the German economy during the 1970s and early 1980s. (JEL D31, D72, H23}.

Date: 2005
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