Distributive Effekte der deutschen Abgeltungssteuer auf Kapitaleinkünfte

An important part of the 2008 reform of business taxation is the final withholding tax of 25% to be introduced from 2009 on all capital income – interest, dividends and proceeds from pri-vate sales – coupled with the parallel abolition of the so-called half-income method for divi-dend payments to private households. The distributive effects of the final withholding tax have hardly been discussed to date. Because of the abolition of the half-income method, the final withholding tax will see a greater burden on dividends in 2009 compared to 2008. In contrast, the burden on interest income will be lower. For this reason, it will only be possible to make any definitive statements from a distribution perspective when both the allocation of total income between capital income and other income, firstly, and the share of interest and dividends in capital income, secondly, is known for the various income groups. A set of data based on income tax statistics for 2002 and provided by the Fraunhofer Institute is being used to calculate the distribution effects for various income classes. Various scenarios show that, irrespective of marital status, the burden on lower earners, at best, doesn’t change, or it is even higher. The greater the income, the greater the relief afforded by the final withholding tax.