Peter Bareis

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Hans Peter Bareis (born August 11, 1940 in Pforzheim ; died January 28, 2018 ) was a German economist , professor of tax law and one of the most important and prominent representatives of business taxation. His research and work aimed, among other things, on business tax planning, but also on a socially acceptable reform and simplification of tax law. He was best known as the chairman of the Bareis Commission named after him, which drafted a proposal for the German government in 1994 to reform the income tax .

Life and professional activity

Bareis studied business administration and business education in Mannheim , St. Gallen and at the Free University of Berlin . In Berlin at the latest, he began to deal intensively with tax issues. Working at Heinz Langen's chair, he developed his doctorate in 1968 on the subject of taxes in operational planning . In 1970 he completed his habilitation at the Free University of Berlin, and in the same year he was appointed professor there. In 1987 he moved to the University of Hohenheim in Stuttgart , where he worked until his retirement in 2005. His chair there included not only taxation but also business auditing .

In addition to his university teaching activities , he worked as an honorary judge at the Federal Court of Justice in the Senate responsible for the professional law of tax advisors . He prepared numerous reports for political parties, churches, trade unions as well as business and advisory associations. He was the author or co-author of several standard works on tax law.

Bareis Commission

The Federal Constitutional Court ruled in 1992 that the subsistence level should not be taxed. The subsistence level set by the Federal Constitutional Court was well above the basic tax allowance at the time , i.e. H. the limit from which income taxation takes place. The simple increase in the basic tax allowance would have led to considerable tax losses. The federal government therefore set up a commission headed by Bareis to develop proposals for counter-financing.

The Commission's proposals envisaged the cancellation of tax breaks amounting to DM 34 billion. a. tax rebates on Sunday and night work should not apply, donations and church tax should no longer be deductible as special expenses. Overall, this would have led to a radical simplification of tax law. The proposals went public before their official presentation and sparked a storm of protest. Oskar Lafontaine , Norbert Blüm and trade union representatives accused the commission of being socially cold. Federal Minister of Finance Theo Waigel accused the commission of proposing too extensive changes. The Commission's proposals were ultimately not implemented.

In later years, too, Bareis made proposals to simplify tax law, for example in 2001 together with Paul Kirchhof .

In the meantime, some of his proposals have been implemented in the beginning, and many are still being discussed.

Works (selection)

  • Herbert Brönner / Peter Bareis / Klaus Hahn / Torsten Maurer / Jens Poll / Uwe Schramm (editors): The balance sheet according to commercial and tax law: individual and consolidated financial statements according to HGB and IFRS, Schäffer Poeschel; 11th edition 2016, ISBN 978-3791033112
  • Theodor Siegel / Peter Barein: Structures of Taxation, Oldenbourg Wissenschaftsverlag, 2003, ISBN 978-3486275469
  • Herbert Brönner / Peter Bareis: The taxation of companies, change of shareholders and conversions, Schäffer-Poeschel Verlag; 17th edition 2003, ISBN 978-3820209402
  • Peter Bareis / Dieter Borg / Kirsten Borgsmidt: Protection of Fundamental Rights in Tax Law, Müller (CFJur.), Heidelberg, 2001, ISBN 978-3811450318

Individual evidence

  1. Why simple tax systems had no chance, Die Welt, January 6, 2010, accessed on April 13, 2018
  2. Looters in the jungle, Focus from May 7, 2001, accessed on April 13, 2018
  3. Winfried Didzoleit, Hans-Jürgen Schlamp : “Everything must go” . In: Der Spiegel . tape June 26 , 1996 ( spiegel.de [accessed February 5, 2019]).
  4. Steffen Ganghof: Who rules the tax reform? Campus Verlag Frankfurt / New York, 2004, accessed on February 5, 2019 .

literature

  • In memory of Professor Dr. Peter Bareis, obituary by Prof. Dr. Theodor Siegel, German Tax Law 2018, p. 273.

Web links