Lohnsteuerrecht in der Unternehmenswirklichkeit : normative und qualitativ-empirische Analysen unter dem Blickwinkel der präskriptiven Entscheidungstheorie

German employers are obliged to withhold wage tax for their employees at source, being – in principle – a pre-payment to the taxpayer’s individual income tax burden. This traditional system hitherto was only rarely subject to detailed analysis from the position of the tax business administration function, so quite little is known about the impact on enterprises. Hence, in this doctoral thesis practical implications of national and international aspects of wage taxation intensively discussed in theory are analysed, judged and presented (in German).
First, the thesis’ issue and objective as well as the course of investigation and the definition of scope are outlined. The following main chapters are divided into a descriptive review and comments on the wage tax positions analysed and – consecutively – the presentation of the results of an empirical assessment process. For the latter ten qualitative guideline oriented interviews with professional wage tax experts from German business practise were conducted. Overall key aspects of the research process are the German employee definition for tax purposes, the demarcation of taxable wage (including reimbursement of income-related expenses and tax exemptions), the rules that tie employers to withhold German wage tax, employee related lump-sum taxation opportunities at employer level, the tax authorities’ instruments to protect, audit and monitor the withholding process (especially including a discussion of the employer liability regulations) as well as issues of cross-border employment under German national and double tax treaty law. The concept of prescriptive decision theory is used as a general framework to the thesis allowing judgement regarding the attribution of the current German wage tax withholding system to the objectives of all relevant parties involved. Prior to an overall summary and conclusion several starting points for possible amendments of the present regime are proposed.
Introductive reference to the form of presentation and 30 content-related illustrations within the text body facilitate the thesis’ design.