Probably today the German cabinet is going to pass a corporate tax reform intended to take effect in 2008. The reform is to lower the total tax burden on companies to below 30 percent. Yesterday, however, temporarily there were irritations due to the fact that after a meeting with business leaders Mrs. Merkel already talked about the possibility of modifications of the reform in order to foster investment in R&D on the part of companies. Some parts of the Social Democratic Party and the unions are against the reform. 