The average tax burden on public limited companies in the EU member states has fallen from 38% in 1993 to currently 24.2%. Over the last years Germany has reduced the tax charge for public limited companies from 59.7% in 1993 to 38.4% today. In the course of the corporate tax reform scheduled for 2008 another decrease to about 30% is planned.
By European comparison corporate tax in Germany is still higer than the EU average. This was demonstrated by the »KPMG’s Corporate and Indirect Tax Rate Survey 2007« which has been carried out regularly for 15 years by KPMG . The survey, however, does not only compare taxes within the EU but also at a global level. The survey showed that compared to OECD member states (27.8%), Latin America (28%) and Asia (30.1%) corporate tax rates in the EU are still the lowest (24.2%) among all industrialized countries.
For the first time this year´s survey also analyzed the turnover tax rates in several countries. It turned out that with on average 19.5% this rate is highest in the EU member states. In the OECD member states the average turnover tax rate amounts to 17.7% while it is 14.2% in Latin America and 10.8% in Asia. Thus, the survey confirmed a trend that in particular in the EU corporate tax rates are falling and turnover tax rates rising. 