TRR 266 Research on Effective Tax Rate of German Corporations featured in German press

Hans-Peter Huber and Ralf Maiterth (Humboldt University of Berlin) scientifically reviewed and ultimately refuted a study that initially brought some explosive news to light. The study “Effective Tax Rates of Multinational Enterprises in the EU” (Janský 2019), commissioned by the Greens in the European Parliament, concluded that companies in Germany pay, on average, only two thirds of the regular tax rate. This news was heavily debated in both the media and political circles when the study was published in early 2019. Hans-Peter Huber and Ralf Maiterth have scrutinized Jansky’s study and conclude that the difference between the regular tax rate and effective tax rate is, in fact, negligible. Their research has been featured by the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in two articles:

FAZ: 3 January 2020: Industrie will Steuersenkung: „So werden Arbeitsplätze gefährdet“
FAZ: 30 December 2019: Studie über Steuerquote widerlegt, p. 16

More about Huber & Maiterth’s study:

In English: BLOG – Fact or fake news: Do German corporations pay only two thirds of the regular tax rate?
In German: BLOG – Fakt oder Fake News: Zahlen deutsche Unternehmen nur zwei Drittel des regulären Steuersatzes?
In German: PRESS RELEASE – Steuerdumping in Deutschland? TRR 266-Forscherteam widerlegt Grünen-Studie
In German: WORKING PAPER – No. 6 | October 2019, Huber, H., & Maiterth, R. (2019). Steuerbelastung deutscher Kapitalgesellschaften von lediglich 20 % – Fakt oder Fake News?

Participating Institutions

TRR 266‘s main locations are Paderborn University (Coordinating University), HU Berlin, and University of Mannheim. All three locations have been centers for accounting and tax research for many years. They are joined by researchers from LMU Munich, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, Goethe University Frankfurt, University of Cologne and Leibniz University Hannover who share the same research agenda.