Paul Kirchhof

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Paul Kirchhof at the book launch Without a family, no state can be made (2018)

Paul Kirchhof (born February 21, 1943 in Osnabrück ) is a German constitutional and tax lawyer . Kirchhof held a chair for constitutional law at the University of Heidelberg and was director of the Institute for Finance and Tax Law. From 1987 to 1999 he was a judge at the Federal Constitutional Court . On June 7, 2013, he gave his farewell lecture.

To person

Paul Kirchhof is a lawyer in the areas of constitutional law , the financial constitution and tax law and the European law . His research and work have shaped the development of income taxes, constitutional law and the European integration of Germany for decades . He is co-editor of the ten-volume handbook of German constitutional law and a commentary on income tax law.

As a non-party, he was part of the competence team of the CDU / CSU led by Chancellor candidate Angela Merkel for the 2005 Bundestag elections and, as finance minister, should be part of her first possible cabinet. In the event of a grand coalition , Kirchhof declared that he would not be available for the office.

Kirchhof is a member of the Catholic student associations K.St.V. Rheno-Palatia Freiburg, K.St.V. Saxonia Munich, KSSt.V. Alemannia Munich and honorary philistine of the K. St. V. Arminia Bonn in KV . He has been an honorary member of the KDSt.V. since 2016 . Ferdinandea / Prague, Bamberg zu Heidelberg in the CV and since 2017 also honorary member of the KDStV Arminia Heidelberg in the CV. He is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Eugen Biser Foundation and Liaison Lecturer at the Cusanuswerk in Heidelberg.

education

Kirchhof went to school in Osnabrück and from 1953 in Karlsruhe ( Bismarck-Gymnasium ), where his father was a judge at the Federal Court of Justice . Paul Kirchhof was a scholarship holder of the Cusanuswerk Episcopal Study Fund . After studying law at the Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (state examinations in Munich 1966 and Stuttgart 1969), he worked with Peter Lerche at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München with the dissertation The concept of sovereign powers in Article 33 paragraph IV of the Basic Law on Dr. jur. PhD. He then worked as a research assistant to Klaus Vogel at the Institute for German and International Tax Law at the University of Heidelberg and completed his habilitation in 1974 at the Faculty of Law for the subjects of constitutional and administrative law, in particular economic administrative law, finance and tax law and administrative studies with the work of managing through indirect Act .

From 1975 to 1981 Kirchhof was a full professor for public law and, as Friedrich Klein's successor, director of the Institute for Tax Law at the University of Münster . Dieter Birk followed in Kirchhof . From 1976 to 1978 he was Vice Rector. In 1981 Kirchhof became a professor at Heidelberg University and director of the Institute for Finance and Tax Law there. From 2000 to 2001 he also headed the Federal Tax Code Research Center in Heidelberg.

family

Paul Kirchhof is the son of the former judge at the Federal Court of Justice Ferdinand Kirchhof sr. and the brother of the former Vice President of the Federal Constitutional Court Ferdinand Kirchhof . His grandfather was a “master carpenter and wood carver”. Paul Kirchhof is Roman Catholic , married and has two sons and two daughters, including Charlotte Kreuter-Kirchhof .

Stages of life

1974 to 1999

In 1987, at the suggestion of the CDU, Kirchhof was appointed as a non-party judge in the Second Senate of the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, of which he was a member until 1999. Under his influence, the much-noticed mandate to the legislature to take into account the costs of childcare and upbringing at the subsistence level for tax purposes arose . He also argues that the fundamental rights and other evaluations of the Basic Law contain a special protection of marriage and family, which also extends to tax policy . The tax legislation is required to treat marriages and families with entrepreneurial working communities at least equally or to improve them. Not only entrepreneurs should be allowed to offset income and expenses. This possibility must be open to communities as well as marriages and families.

Second Senate 1989 with Paul Kirchhof on the far right

In addition to tax policy, Kirchhof was one of the Eurosceptic judges in the Second Senate, which was particularly reflected in the Maastricht judgment (E 89, 155), in which he played a key role as rapporteur. The view expressed there that the Federal Constitutional Court has the authority to examine “breaking legal acts of the community” has led to considerable discussions in academia. After his departure from the Senate, this line was clearly put into perspective by the BVerfG (banana market regulation decision, E 102, 147), but was not expressly rejected.

In 1995, as a reporter, he invented the so-called half-division principle in a procedure for calculating unitary tax values ​​(BVerfGE 93,121 of June 22, 1995) . According to this, the state should not steer away more than roughly half of the citizen's income. Critics such as Ernst-Wolfgang Böckenförde saw this as too great a restriction on the government's tax policy. Nevertheless, the principle was supported by a large majority in the 2nd Senate. In 2006, however, the decision was revised. (2 BvR 2194 / 9918.1.2006)

Other important decisions in which Kirchhof was involved were the euro decision as well as the decision on Somalia and the AWACS operation .

2000 until today

Since 2000, in addition to the chair at the Faculty of Law, Kirchhof has also headed the Federal Tax Code research group at the University of Heidelberg, where he developed his own tax model, which is based on the principles of a state that keeps out of economic life and is intended to simplify tax law considerably ( income tax code ).

From 2003 Kirchhof was co-editor of the Christian weekly newspaper Rheinischer Merkur . From the end of 2004 to July 15, 2006, he was a member of the Supervisory Board of Deutsche Bank AG and a member of the Supervisory Board of Allianz Leben . He was also a member of the board of the Görres Society .

Kirchhof was awarded an honorary doctorate in 2006 by the University of Osnabrück and in 2008 by the Ukrainian Free University of Munich .

He was president of the 65th and 66th German Lawyers' Conference . From 2001 to 2007 Kirchhof was chairman of the German Tax Law Society.

Kirchhof was President of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences from April 1, 2013 to April 18, 2015 .

In the summer semester of 2016, he taught as part of the Otto von Freising visiting professorship at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt .

Jurisprudence

The following decisions, in which Kirchhof participated ( sources are given in the BVerfGE format ), should be emphasized from the case law :

  • Child Existence Minimum I (E 99, 246), Child Existence Minimum II (E 99, 268), Child Existence Minimum III (E 99, 273) - Parents cannot, if they pass on part of their income to their children in order to meet their maintenance obligations , not in this way either dispose that they pay taxes from it. This part of their income belongs to the children. According to the legal system, this part cannot be attributed to the parents, but must be attributed to the children.
  • Family burden compensation II (E 99, 216) - equality of families and unmarried partnerships with regard to childcare costs
  • Unconstitutionality of confiscatory levies, in particular wealth tax (E 93, 121). In this ruling, the Federal Constitutional Court, under the leadership of Kirchhof, established the so-called half - division principle, which was later abandoned .
  • Savings tax (E 84, 239) - Taxation of investment income that is based solely on the tax return (declaration) without being able to be checked (verification) suffers from a structural deficit and therefore violates the principle of equality.
  • Maastricht judgment (E 89, 155)
  • Euro decision (E 97, 350)
  • Financial constitution : decisions on financial equalization between the federal and state governments: financial equalization II (E 86, 118) and financial equalization III (E 101, 158); Unconstitutionality of the " coal penny " (E 91, 186)
  • Overhang mandates II (E 95, 335): The court stalemated a control of norms that criticized overhang mandates in federal elections and thus considerable inequalities in the weight of votes. Kirchhof belonged to the faction in the court that confirmed the overhang mandates and the existing electoral system.

Even after leaving office, the influence of his work can be seen:

Political positions

Family policy

Protection and support for the family are central to Kirchhof's political convictions. As a constitutional judge, he campaigned for the betterment of families and children. He argues that everyone is free to marry and have children - but should all or the majority of people decide against it, society and state would collapse economically - logically thought through - ( Diogenes paradox , Böckenförde dilemma ). It is therefore the responsibility of the state to take an actively promoting position.

In family policy, Kirchhof advocates a better work-life balance . He calls for better care through more crèche and kindergarten places as well as better guarantees of return to work, but also decidedly a strengthening of the rights (e.g. in the case of retirement ) of raising, non-working mothers. Kirchhof was an ambassador for the New Social Market Economy initiative .

In 2002 Kirchhof wrote in a foreword to a book ( Adventure Family ) by Jürgen and Martine Liminski about their family with ten children that “the mother ” makes “in the family” […] gives a “career” as a “family manager” give their children “above all time. On this basis [she] gives them tenderness, affection and a home [...]. The father also sees his first responsibility in his family job and only then in his gainful occupation ”. The father educates "the children in their belonging to family, state, market economy, cultural community and church".

As a result, this plea was perceived as a fundamental ideological statement, and in part - for example, by Federal Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in a TV duel with Angela Merkel - criticized as " reactionary " and " anti-emancipatory ". In later interviews Kirchhof protested against this accusation and pointed out that the foreword explicitly refers to the Liminski family of 12 in the book, who represent an "ideal" in their upbringing, but which is not generalized as a yardstick for everyone allowed, but what happened "maliciously" in the 2005 election campaign . Today's life situation of young women corresponds to that of his two daughters and his two daughters-in-law, they combine family and work.

In the controversy over the Civil Partnership Act in 2001, Kirchhof derived from Article 6 of the Basic Law , which placed marriage and the family under the "special protection of the state," a distance requirement that forbids legal equality between homosexual partnerships and marriage. The Federal Constitutional Court did not follow this view of its former member and decided that the Basic Law required a particularly active promotion of marriage and family, but did not recognize any distance requirement.

Pension policy

In the German pension system , he advocates a stronger second pillar based on the funded principle in addition to the current capital allocation principle , and in the long term even the complete switch to the funded principle, albeit with state support. Paul Kirchhof assumes that in the medium term, the contributors will no longer be able to pay for the people in their retirement, since then, depending on the model, one pensioner comes to two contributors. However, economists often argue that even funded systems are not unaffected by aging, cf. Funding procedure .

Tax policy

In the event of a possible coalition between CDU / CSU and FDP, Kirchhof wanted to implement the government's tax policy in the 16th legislative period as Federal Finance Minister . In the long term, instead of the progressive income tax rate that is usual in Germany, he is aiming for a threshold tariff of 15, 20 and 25% for all income groups. However, tax allowances and social compensation also ensure an indirect progression of the average tax rate in the Kirchhof tax model . In 2011 Kirchhof presented its proposals to reform the federal tax law.

Kirchhof has long spoken out against a sales tax increase , but then wanted to support it in connection with a reduction in ancillary wage costs and an exception for the reduced sales tax rate of 7%. In the meantime, Kirchhof clearly describes the increase in sales tax decided by the Bundestag at the end of May 2006 as "unconstitutional". He even encourages everyone to file constitutional complaints against it.

Paul Kirchhof's controversial proposals are described in the article Kirchhof-Modell .

License fee law

The reform of the license fee model on January 1, 2013, which no longer makes people but households liable to pay taxes, goes back to an expert report by Kirchhof on behalf of ARD , ZDF and Deutschlandradio .

Rescue parachutes

On March 22, 2013, Kirchhof expressed its opinion on government bailout funds in an article published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , Growth without Value : Loan-financed bailout funds have a destabilizing effect .

European financial policy

In 2020 he criticized the European Central Bank's interest rate policy . The ECB is violating “the constitutionally guaranteed substance of a modern form of private property” and is conducting “the largest redistribution in the history of the European Union”. Its policy makes “the owner of property richer and the saver poorer”.

Memberships

Works (selection)

Honors, prizes and recognitions

Paul Kirchhof received the following honors:

Kirchhof has received the following prizes:

literature

Web links

Commons : Paul Kirchhof  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Paul Kirchhof  - Quotes

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ youtube.com
  2. ↑ Detailed curriculum vitae of Paul Kirchhof (PDF file; 13 kB) ( Memento from June 18, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Paul Kirchhof, The Measure of Justice. Brings our country back into balance !, Munich 2009, p. 202.
  4. ↑ Press release from Heidelberg University of April 23, 2015 .
  5. ↑ "The meaning of freedom u. Equality for current politics: On issues of the European Union, refugee policy ... " , ku.de; accessed on February 6, 2018
  6. ↑ BVerfGE 105, 313 margin no. 98 ff, as well as guiding principle 3.
  7. ↑ bankingclub.de: A draft reform to renew tax law (accessed on May 16, 2014)
  8. ^ Spiegel Online, June 2, 2006
  9. ↑ Melanie Amann: "The radio license fee is like a tourist tax". The father of the new GEZ fee, ex-constitutional judge Paul Kirchhof, praises his model and reprimands shallow entertainment on ARD and ZDF . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung . No. 3 . Frankfurt am Main January 20, 2013, p. 23 ( faz.net [accessed January 21, 2013]).
  10. ↑ FAZ , p. 8.
  11. ↑ Focus Tax Special April 2020, p. 6.
  12. ↑ Focus Tax Special April 2020, p. 7.
  13. ^ Paul Kirchhof: Expert opinion on the financing of public broadcasting, submitted on behalf of ARD, ZDF and D Radio. (PDF) ARD, accessed on May 1, 2016 .
  14. ↑ paul-kirchhof.de
  15. ↑ paul-kirchhof.de
  16. ↑ Helmut Glück , Walter Krämer , Eberhard Schöck (Ed.): German Language Culture Prize 2005 - Speeches and Speeches . Paderborn 2005, ISBN 978-3-931263-50-8 .
  17. ^ German SME Award 2005
  18. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20140310014028/http://www.finanzforum-vorhaben.de:80/preistraeger_2011.html
  19. ↑ Awarding of the Alexander-Rüstow-Badge to Professor Dr. Dres.hc Paul Kirchho f , accessed on June 6, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Kirchhof, Paul
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German lawyer, judge of the Federal Constitutional Court
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1943
PLACE OF BIRTH Osnabrück