Neuordnung der Besteuerungskompetenzen bei der Einkommensteuer

The controversies over the reform of the German intergovernmental fiscal equalisation system generally concern the equalisation formula at the last step of the tax-sharing system. In order to achieve a financial architecture that truly corresponds with the tasks of the federal government, the states and the municipalities, the tax-sharing schedules also need to be reconsidered. To share the personal income tax according to proportional tax rates for the states and municipalities and to leave the progressive tax rates to the federal level would not only deliver horizontally more equal tax revenues for the sub-federal tiers of government but also increase the vertical flexibility of tax distribution if the federal and state governments then had the right to change “their” tax rates without the approval of the Bundesrat or Bundestag. Copyright ZBW and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014