Expense taxes
Cost taxes are operational taxes that are treated as costs from the company's perspective and are therefore included in the product costing. Income taxes are the opposite .
General
With the business - not legally used - term of cost taxes it is conveyed that certain types of tax are viewed as costs, so that they have to be closely connected with the operational provision of services . The result is that they are included in the calculation as prime costs and thus influence pricing . Cost taxes can therefore be passed on to customers through the price . If, on the other hand, a tax is to be paid from the profit , it is a - not price-influencing - income or profit tax.
Expense taxes
The cost taxes include:
- all consumption taxes such as mineral oil tax ;
- all transaction taxes such as land transfer , real estate tax , vehicle tax , insurance control or dogs control . They encumber individual items of business assets .
- Wealth tax on business assets (currently not levied in Germany).
Certain state taxes that are not taxes in the strict sense, such as the groundwater levy, are also treated like cost taxes .
Role of business tax
The role of trade tax, which is often assigned to cost taxes in cost accounting, is controversial . For Konrad Mellerowicz , the trade tax is fully a cost tax, because it represents operational consumption that is inextricably linked to the existence of the business. Even Erich Gutenberg was of the opinion that the business tax is a cost control. If , according to Günter Wöhe , the trade tax is attributable to the trade capital, it is considered a cost tax, the profit-related remainder is a price-effective expense tax.
From a tax point of view, trade tax as a real tax has not been a cost tax since 2005, as it is no longer considered a business expense ( Section 5b EStG). As a result, trade tax constitutes an effective tax burden on income taxes and can no longer be qualified as cost tax. The more recent literature counts the trade tax among the income taxes. If it is nevertheless understood as a cost tax from an economic point of view, it must be factored into the prices and does not burden the company, but its customers.
Consideration in the calculation
In accordance with No. 30 of the Guidelines for Price Determination on the Basis of Costs (Annex to Regulation PR No. 30/53 of November 21, 1953), cost taxes may be taken into account in the calculation of contracts to the public sector that are invoiced at cost . In the provision, the trade tax is expressly mentioned as a cost component.
Effects
First of all, cost taxes lead to an increase in the price of the products and services created . They also lead to a distortion of the market because, on the one hand, not all providers include trade tax in their prices in whole or in part, and on the other hand, individual cost components are charged with different cost taxes. Since trade tax may be factored in when determining the cost of public contracts, there may be price differences if the same product is offered to non-public customers.
literature
- Heinz Kussmaul, Business Taxation , ISBN 978-3486578973 , pages 159–160
Individual evidence
- ↑ Konrad Mellerowicz, General Business Administration , Volume 2, 1954, p. 35
- ↑ Erich Gutenberg, Introduction to Business Administration , 1958, p. 136
- ^ Günter Wöhe, Business Taxation , Volume II, 2nd Half Volume, 1990, p. 56
- ↑ Peter Glanegger / Georg Güroff, Comment on Trade Tax Law , 2006, § 1 Rn. 15th
- ↑ Gerd Rose, Die Income Taxes , 2001, p. 22