Abstract
In 2005 elections were held in Germany. Angela Merkel — now Chancellor — announced that her party, the conservative CDU, would raise VAT rates by 2 percent if they should win the election. Could the new majority in parliament have passed a motion like this? Yes, they could. Could they have decided autonomously to reduce VAT rates by 2 percent? No, they could not. Could they have acted on Ms Merkel’s suggestion to apply zero rates of VAT on children’s clothes? No, they could not. Could they have done what Joschka Fischer, former Minister of Foreign Affairs, recommended, and tax luxury goods such as expensive cars at higher rates? Again, no.
I am grateful to Vicki May, Philipp Genschel, Thomas Rixen, Ingo Rohlfing, Dieter Wolf and, of course, the editors of this book, for their comments to earlier drafts of this chapter.
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© 2007 Susanne Uhl
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Uhl, S. (2007). Europe, the Nation State and Taxation. In: Hurrelmann, A., Leibfried, S., Martens, K., Mayer, P. (eds) Transforming the Golden-Age Nation State. Transformations of the State. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230590861_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230590861_2
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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