Änderung des Steuertarifs durch das Inflationsausgleichsgesetz - Verpasste Chance zum Abbau des Mittelstandsbauchs!

With the Inflation Compensation Act, taxpayers in Germany will be relieved by about 25 billion euros in income taxes. At the same time, there are repeated calls from both politics and science to abolish the so-called middle-class belly in the income tax tariff, which would also be accompanied by considerable revenue losses. This article shows that it would have been possible to abolish the middle-class belly with the same revenue loss than those caused by the Inflation Compensation Act. It would also be possible to achieve very similar or even more positive distributional effects. To determine revenue-neutral tariffs, we use a micro-simulation model updated to the legal status of 2024, which is based on data from official income tax statistics. Possible tariff alternatives could either be achieved by raising the minimum marginal tax rate, shifting down the threshold for the application of the top marginal tax rate, or a combination of several such changes, including an increase in the basic tax allowance.