Value tax

According to the current terminology, a distinction is made between quantity taxes (English: specific taxes ) and value taxes (eng .: ad valorem taxes ).

A value tax is a tax on the price of the goods in question or the value of a transaction and not on the amount purchased. Value taxes are levied as percentage surcharges or discounts on sales , income or customs value . If a good is charged, for example, with a sales tax rate of τ (pronounced: tau ), the result is a consumer price. Value taxes have the advantage that they grow with the inflation-related rate of monetary quantities. This is not the case with quantity taxes. In order to compensate for the inflation rate , no tax increases are necessary, by the politicians ${\ displaystyle \! q = (1+ \ tau) p.}$ are difficult to convey. Therefore, the major taxes today are value taxes.

In the case of progressive taxes, the revenue effect described is even more pronounced. For example, the legislature can even announce “tax cuts” in which it only returns the additional income that was earned in previous years through the cold progression .

A distinction must be made between gross value taxes and net value taxes . While the tax is deducted from the assessment base for gross value taxes, the tax is added to the assessment base for net value taxes. The sales tax is a net value tax and is currently 19% in Germany. This corresponds to a gross value added tax of around 15.97%. A tax rate of 19% on the net value corresponds to a tax rate of 15.97% on the gross value. In contrast, income tax belongs to the group of gross value taxes . The following formula applies to the conversion between gross value tax and net value tax:

{\ displaystyle \ mathrm {gross value tax} = 1 - {\ frac {1} {1+ \ mathrm {net value tax}}}.}