(Mountain; 11/12-03; p.4)

This simplification on the other hand is bought by a reduction of different tax-rates to respective stage limits.
According to the Merz-scheme, an average stage should be established that would be relevant for about one half of tax-payers. Beside this, stages of twelve per cent and thirty-six per cent tax-rate should be established for low-wage and highest-income earners, respectively; lowest-wage earner would not be taxed.
In comparison to the now practised principle, the area of below average earners is subdivided into two: an upper share will become part of the average stage, a lower share will become part of low-wage stage.

The effects on disposable income obviously depend on the envisaged stage limits and tax-rates. F Merz suggests a lower stage for about one third of the tax-payers, an average for about one half and an upper for the rest. Why not a lower stage for one half, an average for a third and an upper for the rest of the tax-payers? For guaranteeing the same revenue, tax-rates of the two upper stages could be raised slightly ...

 

Necessarily to mention is another point in respect to taxation: the point of really levying taxes. As long as the rates are nothing but paper-work and taxes can be reduced to naught in the extreme or are simply not paid because of fraud, every applied principle remains unjust.

As long as especially above average earners and ones with highest-incomes may legally reduce their liabilities, the mentioned principle of performance-based taxation in fact remains unapplied.
Thus, subsidies on or amortisation of private income have to be cut-off in the broadest possible way; a beginning has been made by minister-presidents Koch (Christian Democrat, Hesse) and Steinbrück (Social Democrat, North Rhine-Westphalia) in a common proposal.
Simple tax laws are also a low-budget means to prevent crime: they enable tax authorities to find and punish criminals.
[German original article is linked to a cheek-in-tongue concept for a federal cabinet. For a close understanding of German recent politics and politicians is needed to get the punch line, the link is omitted here.](read on here)