Individual taxation
Individual taxation refers to a method of taxation in which the income of each natural person is taxed individually.
In a model of individual taxation, the amount of the tax is based on the income of the individual , not on the aggregated income of an assessment group such as B. of a married couple. In the case of individual taxation, the income tax burden of spouses is independent of whether both partners generate income or only one. There is no difference between people who live in a one-person household, in a civil partnership , or who are married.
Various models of individual taxation also provide for a transferable basic allowance , which is intended in particular to ensure that the subsistence level of the spouse who is not in gainful employment cannot be taken into account.
Overall, individual taxation has little or no tax advantage or disadvantage due to the marital status , depending on the characteristics of the system.
National characteristics
The method of taxation in Sweden is purely individual taxation .
The income tax in Austria has been conducted since 1973 on the principle of individual taxation, with the addition of family-related deductions (sole earner, single parent, Kinderabsetzbeträge) come into play.
Gender-political consequences
Individual taxation reduces the incentives for sharing roles in the household, even if a sole-earner deduction is provided, compared to joint assessment or splitting systems. In contrast, spouse splitting and family splitting offer similar incentives for role sharing. This is particularly true of couples in which the main earner earns more per additional unit of time than the secondary earner with lower income. In comparison, individual taxation supports double-pension models with an equal division of labor.
Proponents of individual taxation in Austria point out that individual taxation within the framework of the additional earning model prevents the starting income of the lower-earning spouse from being subject to tax progression . This would avoid negative incentives for the spouse to take up employment. From a statistical point of view, this would promote the integration of women into employment compared to models of spouse or family splitting.
Due to the incentives for both partners to work, individual taxation is seen as a means to preventively defuse financial (transitional) problems in the event of separation and divorce through provisions in the tax and social system.
rating
Critics point out that individual taxation without family benefits or burden equalization would not sufficiently take into account the financial burdens of a family.
A fundamental consideration of what “family-friendly taxation” can be, it becomes clear from the outset that it is not possible under a progressive income tax to make the tax “family-friendly” in every respect:
- "Under a progressive income tax, marital status neutrality (no marriage bonus, no marriage penalty) and horizontal justice between households (same tax burden for households with the same total income) cannot be achieved simultaneously."
Accordingly, proponents point out that individual taxation equates second earners in marriage with first earners, while critics of individual taxation point out that it disadvantages those married couples for whom a single breadwinner pays for the family income because they are married couples in which one partner is completely or largely withdraws from working life, with the same total income, are taxed more heavily than married couples, where both contribute approximately the same amount to the family income.
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Family support and family taxation. Analysis and evaluation of the models currently under discussion. (PDF; 544 kB) (No longer available online.) Chamber of Labor Upper Austria, March 2008, archived from the original on December 31, 2009 ; Retrieved October 10, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Miriam Beblo: Gender-political evaluation of individual taxation. (PDF) (No longer available online.) February 18, 2009, formerly in the original ; Retrieved October 10, 2009 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Family taxation : freedom of choice for women at risk. Social law expert Binder advocates maintaining individual taxation. (No longer available online.) Austrian Institute for Family Research, University of Vienna, archived from the original on February 13, 2006 ; Retrieved October 10, 2009 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Hans-Jürgen Andreß, Barbara Borgloh, Miriam Güllner, Katja Wilking: When love turns into the red - About the economic consequences of separation and divorce. (PDF; 35 kB) Retrieved October 11, 2009 . P. 4
- ↑ Marco Salvi: Individual Taxation: More Efficiency in the Tax System. Neue Zürcher Zeitung, August 7, 2014, accessed on March 13, 2016 .
