Symmetric cash flow-taxation and cross-border investments

The discussion about income versus consumption as the ideal tax base looks back on a long history. In recent years, the debate about income versus consumption as the better tax base reemerged in the United States (2002) and in Germany (2006). In view of the long history of the debate, it is surprising that still relatively little research has been done on crossborder-investments in a cash flow-tax system. The presented article tries to fill this gap. For the case of a harmonized introduction of symmetric cash flow-tax systems in several countries, rules are developed that could guarantee a systematic and feasible treatment of crossborder investments. Preference is given to the RF-base-cash flow-tax on the personal level without a separate company tax. As a result the presented article states, that a coordinated introduction of symmetric cash flow-tax systems in several neighboring countries could be possible. To guarantee the success of the reform, each country must be willing to commit to intensive cooperation in tax matters. A unilateral introduction of a cash flow-tax and the resulting clash of a consumption-based tax system with an income-based tax system - the socalled collision-case - will be addressed in a following paper.