Grunderwerbsteuer im Länderfinanzausgleich: Umverteilung der Zusatzlast der Besteuerung

Apart from Bavaria and Saxony, all Federal States in Germany have considerably raised property transfer taxes in recent years. There is empirical evidence that increasing property transfer taxes leads to lower turnover on real estate markets. The corresponding negative fiscal impact is partly counterbalanced in the German fiscal equalisation scheme. This paper explicates the relationship between tax hikes and the transfer volume and calculates the responses of the fiscal equalisation scheme in various scenarios.