Economic Freedom

Where there are tax havens, because there must be a tax desert, as a bon mot, whose authorship is not clarified beyond any doubt. The oases are now a little dry, and, paradoxically, believe just the administrator of the desert, that this will help them to new heights. Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Austria, Luxembourg and others seem to be willing to relax their bank secrecy more or less.In the case of Switzerland, for example, much has been written about the difference between tax evasion and tax fraud. So far, Switzerland is providing no assistance to foreign tax inspectors tax evasion. In the future, the account of habitual tax evaders in Switzerland is no longer safe, and his account data can be transmitted to the German authorities when they log a reasonable suspicion. Similar developments are expected soon, we also observed in the other aforementioned low-tax countries.

Whether it

In Switzerland, however, is really so, we will still have to wait. The easing of bank secrecy is in fact a decision that could be revised by the voters directly-democratic way, which is not entirely unlikely. The citizens of Switzerland have their own will often finally, they make use of their institutional opportunities to correct their political representatives like to use. Although she voted for instance, recently in the canton of Zurich, the abolition of tax privileges for wealthy foreigners, but that had more to do with that drive these newcomers, the local real estate prices in almost unaffordable heights. Due to massive pressure to loosen its banking secrecy of foreign countries, however this is a measure that is among the heirs of William Tell and Arnold Winkelried arrive no good.

From a German perspective would

It more elegant and more promising ways to combat the problem of tax evasion. Indeed, significant steps have already been made, such as the introduction of the withholding tax on capital gains. This will no longer be subject to the generally higher personal income tax rate, but a flat rate of a uniform 25 percent. If we assume that foreign investment can be found in forms not subject to the EU Savings Directive, then you can save by using a successful tax evasion that is now tax payments of 25 percent. This is considerably less than it was not so long ago when you could get in some personal income tax rate of marginal tax rates well above 50 percent. At that time Germany was in fact still a tax desert. You can now criticize the withholding tax for many reasons, such as a blatant violation of ability to pay. But the future tax fleeing abroad, they should certainly help reduce: For a tax savings of only 25 percent will hopefully only a few, very hard-nosed stingy involved with the stress of tax evasion and the fear of discovery.

One

This first step could include further measures. To fetch the exchequer already concealed assets back into the country, would offer a tax amnesty, which deserves the name, therefore dispenses with no additional claims. It remains the problem that the tax payer the current rate of withholding tax may only hold for a kind of teaser, fearing that this could rise dramatically again in the future. To signal credibly that are planned for the future no painful tax increases, one could only write one set of two-thirds majority to change the maximum tax rate in the Basic Law. Certainly, in terms of short-term perceptions of distributive justice may be criticized all that, but it would be an elegant way to the base of the flat tax in the future to widen dramatically.

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Categories: Coutry