1. Home
  2. Studies
  3. Distribution of Taxes and Social Security Contributions in Germany
IW-Trends No. 1 25. March 2013 Thilo Schaefer Distribution of Taxes and Social Security Contributions in Germany
Download PDF
Distribution of Taxes and Social Security Contributions in Germany
IW-Trends No. 1 25. March 2013 Thilo Schaefer

Distribution of Taxes and Social Security Contributions in Germany

Thilo Schaefer German Economic Institute (IW) German Economic Institute (IW)

The levies which make the greatest contribution to public revenues are income tax, value-added tax (VAT) and social insurance contributions. While income tax in Germany is charged on a progressive scale, VAT has a slightly regressive effect due to the relative decrease in expenditure on consumption as income increases. Although VAT affects considerably more people than income tax, the latter’s progressive influence dominates income distribution. Since not all tax-payers contribute to statutory social insurance schemes, it is not the households with the highest income but the ninth decile who bear the highest total burden of income tax, VAT and social insurance contributions in percentage terms. With this one exception, the burden of taxes and social security contributions in Germany rises steadily with income.

Download | PDF

Download PDF
Distribution of Taxes and Social Security Contributions in Germany
IW-Trends No. 1 25. March 2013 Thilo Schaefer

Distribution of Taxes and Social Security Contributions in Germany

Thilo Schaefer German Economic Institute (IW) German Economic Institute (IW)

More about this topic

More about this topic

Read the article
Reconciling Formal Employment with Caring for a Relative
IW-Trends No. 4 3. December 2025 Maximilian Stockhausen

Gainful Employment and Caregiving: Reconciling Formal Employment with Caring for a Relative

German society is ageing, and more and more of those in paid employment are having to combine their jobs with caring for a relative. Of the approximately 5.7 million family caregivers in Germany in 2022, almost three quarters were under 66 and thus still of working age.

Maximilian Stockhausen IW

Read the article
IW-Report No. 59 17. November 2025 Ruth Maria Schüler et al.

Co-payments in inpatient care: An analysis of regional cost differences

This report is based on the evaluation of price data from a total of 10,820 full-time nursing homes in Germany which are provided on the ‘pflegelotse.de’ platform of the Association of Substitute Health Insurance Funds (vdek) and were collected at the beginning of October 2024 using a web scraping process.

Ruth Maria Schüler / Maximilian Stockhausen / Hendrik Böhmer / Jan Wendt IW

More about this topic

Content element with id 9713