ABSTRACT
Government revenue and expenditure During the last hundred years the state’s share in GNP has risen rapidly. Whereas it accounted for only 11 per cent in 1881 it rose to more than 15 per cent in 1913, more than 25 per cent in 1928, 31 per cent in 1960, 37 per cent in 1969 and roughly 49 per cent in 1982.1
Source: Statistisches Bundesamt
According to the basic law (Grundgesetz) the distribution of tax receipts is regulated between the three governmental units (Federal government, states and local authorities) in a way that the Federal government receives, among others, the consumption tax (without the beer tax), customs duties, state monopolies like the duty on matches (until 1983) and the turnover tax. The Laender receive the tax on property, the automobile tax and the beer tax, whereas the receipts of the occupation tax and the land tax go to the municipalities. The income and corporate taxes are distributed between the Federal government and the Laender. With the financial reform of 1969 the pay-as-you-earn income tax and the turnover tax were added to this as “communal taxes” (Gemeinschaftssteuern).
