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The German corporate tax reform of 2008 has brought about important cuts in corporate tax rates, which were at the same time accompanied by significant changes in the determination of the tax base for both major German corporate taxes - corporate income tax and trade tax. The reform followed the distinct and internationally prevalent pattern of tax rate cut cum base broadening. Its implications are thus not unique to Germany. Especially in view of the current economic crisis, questions on the distribution of the tax burden among firms of different characteristics have arisen and still remain at the heart of the academic and political debate in Germany and other countries. In this paper we present a new corporate microsimulation model, ZEW TaxCoMM, which allows for the coherent micro-based analysis of revenue implications of tax reforms and the distribution of tax consequences among heterogeneous firms. The model processes firm-level financial accounting input data and derives the firm specific tax base and tax due endogenously in accordance with the tax code. To smooth out distortions between the sample and the population of German corporations, the sample is extrapolated on the basis of the corporate income tax statistic. The simulation results show inter alia that the average annual relief as measured by the average decline in the effective tax burden on cash flow amounts to 2.8 percentage points for large corporations and to 6 percentage points for small corporations. Furthermore, the results illustrate that firms with low profitability, high debt ratio and high capital intensity benefit least from the reform. As to tax revenues, the reform induced decrease amounts to € 9.8 billion and the trade tax gains fiscally in importance.

The German corporate tax reform of 2008 has brought about important cuts in corporate tax rates, which were at the same time accompanied by significant changes in the determination of the tax base for both major German corporate taxes - corporate income tax and trade tax. The reform followed the distinct and internationally prevalent pattern of tax rate cut cum base broadening. Its implications are thus not unique to Germany. Especially in view of the current economic crisis, questions on the distribution of the tax burden among firms of different characteristics have arisen and still remain at the heart of the academic and political debate in Germany and other countries. In this paper we present a new corporate microsimulation model, ZEW TaxCoMM, which allows for the coherent micro-based analysis of revenue implications of tax reforms and the distribution of tax consequences among heterogeneous firms. The model processes firm-level financial accounting input data and derives the firm specific tax base and tax due endogenously in accordance with the tax code. To smooth out distortions between the sample and the population of German corporations, the sample is extrapolated on the basis of the corporate income tax statistic. The simulation results show inter alia that the average annual relief as measured by the average decline in the effective tax burden on cash flow amounts to 2.8 percentage points for large corporations and to 6 percentage points for small corporations. Furthermore, the results illustrate that firms with low profitability, high debt ratio and high capital intensity benefit least from the reform. As to tax revenues, the reform induced decrease amounts to € 9.8 billion and the trade tax gains fiscally in importance.

Current political discussions in Germany and other European countries illustrate the importance accorded to revenue and distribution effects of tax reforms. Whereas widely recognized concepts of effective tax measures can provide important insights into the incentives of taxation they do not allow robust revenue estimations or distribution analyses. Hence there is need to supplement existing quantitative tax models by approaches apt for these issues of policy analysis. Against this background, this paper puts forward a corporate microsimulation model allowing an ex-ante evaluation of tax reforms with regard to distributional consequences and revenue effects. Central feature of the model is the processing of financial statements included in the DAFNE data base of the Bureau van Dijk. The firm-level data is supplemented by survey data on tax accounting practices. The focus of the paper is on the documentation of the model set-up. Its application will be addressed in future publications.

Current political discussions in Germany and other European countries illustrate the importance accorded to revenue and distribution effects of tax reforms. Whereas widely recognized concepts of effective tax measures can provide important insights into the incentives of taxation they do not allow robust revenue estimations or distribution analyses. Hence there is need to supplement existing quantitative tax models by approaches apt for these issues of policy analysis. Against this background, this paper puts forward a corporate microsimulation model allowing an ex-ante evaluation of tax reforms with regard to distributional consequences and revenue effects. Central feature of the model is the processing of financial statements included in the DAFNE data base of the Bureau van Dijk. The firm-level data is supplemented by survey data on tax accounting practices. The focus of the paper is on the documentation of the model set-up. Its application will be addressed in future publications.

This paper discusses the issue of profit shifting and aggressive tax planning by multinational firms. The paper makes two contributions. Firstly, we provide some background information to the debate by giving a brief overview over existing empirical studies on profit shifting and by describing arrangements for IP-based profit shifting which are used by the companies currently accused of avoiding taxes. We then show that preventing this type of tax avoidance is, in principle, straightforward. Secondly, we argue that, in the short term, policy makers should focus on extending withholding taxes in an internationally coordinated way. Other measures which are currently being discussed, in particular unilateral measures like limitations on interest and license deduction, fundamental reforms of the international tax system and country-by-country reporting, are either economically harmful or need to be elaborated much further before their introduction can be considered.

Die EU-Kommission hat einen Aktionsplan zur grundlegenden Reform der Unternehmensbesteuerung vorgelegt, der missbräuchlicher Steuergestaltung entgegenwirken und nachhaltige Einnahmen gewährleisten soll. Die Maßnahmen sollen die steuerlichen Rahmenbedingungen für Unternehmen in Europa gerechter, effizienter und wachstumsfreundlicher gestalten. Für Wolfgang Schön, Max-Planck-Institut für Steuerrecht und Öffentliche Finanzen, München, und Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, enthält der Aktionsplan wenige Positionen, die nicht bereits vorher diskutiert oder angekündigt waren. Der Gesamttext mache jedoch deutlich, wie stark sich die Kommission von ihren ursprünglichen Zielen europäischer Steuergesetzgebung entfernt habe. Dennis Klein, Leibniz-Fachhochschule Hannover, warnt vor zu hohen Erwartungen an den Aktionsplan. Er sei wenig mehr als bloßer Aktionismus der EU-Kommission. Für Markus Kerber, Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie, ist es nachvollziehbar, dass die Kommission verstärkt gegen Steuervermeidung vorgehen möchte. Es dürfe jedoch nicht bei einer vordergründigen Diskussion bleiben: Im Zentrum des EU-Projekts stand zu Beginn das Ziel der steuerpolitischen Flankierung des europäischen Binnenmarktes. Eine Verschiebung des Brennpunktes auf die Vermeidung von Steuergestaltungen vermag, seiner Meinung nach, ein solch umfangreiches Projekt nicht zu tragen. Der Fokus sollte auf die Harmonisierung gerichtet sein, um die Attraktivität des europäischen Wirtschaftsstandorts zu erhöhen. Martin Ruf und Tanja Kroh, Universität Tübingen, sehen in dem EU-Aktionsplan nur punktuelle Lösungsansätze für das altbekannte Problem der »Steuerplanung unter Ausnutzung des internationalen Steuersatzgefälles«. Nach Ansicht von Katharina Finke, Universität Mannheim und Zentrum für Europäische Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW), Mannheim, und Christoph Spengel, Universität Mannheim, gehen von dem Aktionsplan neue Impulse zur Weiterentwicklung der Unternehmensbesteuerung in Europa aus. Die EU-Kom