Jakob Wegmann

@jakobwegmann.bsky.social

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Applied Labor and Public Economist, Postdoc @rfberlin.bsky.social https://jakobwegmann.github.io/

Urteilstext zur steuerlichen Berücksichtigung eines häuslichen Arbeitszimmers
Gender Gap in withholding taxes induced by the choice of withholding tax schedules.
Withholding tax schedule in Germany. For example, at an income of 4000€, employees pay 12% in the favorable withholding tax schedule and 32% in the unfavorable withholding tax schedule.
Survey results.
Result figure
Descriptive evidence that income growth is larger for women in unfavorable withholding tax class than in default withholding tax class after the reform. Similar pre-trends.
Reform is larger for women in unfavorable withholding tax class than for women in default withholding tax class
Gender gap in withholding taxes
Withholding Tax Schedules in Germany
To collect income taxes, almost all countries require employers to withhold monthly tax prepayments which are then fully credited against the final income tax liabilities of their employees. Despite being a fundamental component of income taxation systems worldwide, the impact of these withholding taxes on labor supply is poorly understood. We investigate their importance in the context of married couples in Germany where the withholding tax liability can be redistributed between spouses. We exploit a reform that reduced the withholding tax for some married women more than for others, while inducing no differences in income taxes. Using administrative data for the full population of German taxpayers, we estimate an elasticity of labor income with respect to the withholding tax eight years after the reform of 0.14. Additional evidence from a self-conducted survey suggests imperfect understanding of the tax system and limited pooling of resources within the household as the main mechanisms. As the majority of couples shift parts of the withholding tax liability from the husband to the wife, our results suggest that the increased withholding tax liability of married women contributes to their low labor supply. This highlights the need for governments to be aware of the distortion of labor supply incentives when the design of withholding taxes does not match actual income tax incentives.
Bild von "Die Steuerfreiheit des Existenzminimums vor dem Bundesverfassungsgericht"
Ein Artikel der FAZ zur Wirkung des deutschen Lohnsteuersystems auf die Arbeit von verheirateten Frauen