Grundfreibetrag und Einkommensteuertarif — eine Trennung ist möglich

The basic allowance of the german income tax system is designed to ensure that the minimum subsistence level is not taxed. According to German income tax law, the basic allowance is not deducted from income. Instead, the tax schedule has a zero-rated bracket. Thus, the income tax schedule has a dual function: it determines the tax burden and exempts the subsistence level from taxation. This paper proposes extracting the zero-rated bracket from the tax schedule and deducting a basic allowance directly from income instead. Such a direct deduction of the basic allowance from income would make the constitutionally required exemption of the subsistence level more transparent. At the same time, an independent basic allowance could be increased more easily, without having to change the entire tax schedule. Copyright ZBW and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013