MaTax Annual Conference at ZEW Focuses on Sustainable Tax Systems

For the third time, the Leibniz ScienceCampus "Mannheim Taxation" (MaTax), the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) and the University of Mannheim jointly organised the Annual MaTax Conference on taxation research, which took place on October 4 and 5, 2016. This year's conference featured a number of topics related to the ScienceCampus' key issue, the design of a sustainable tax system. During the conference, around 80 international researchers discussed current taxation issues, including the influence of taxes on investment decisions, the design of taxes on consumption, the impact of taxes on mobility as well as the effects of EU reform concepts.

In his keynote speech, Professor Dhammika Dharmapala from the Law School of Chicago University provided valuable insights into the past and future of income taxation. After presenting historic data on the origins of income taxation, he discussed prevailing distortions and problems involved in implementing taxes for various fields of tax policy. Given the persisting problem of tax avoidance, Professor Dharmapala called into question the necessity of income taxes in the long term. According to Dharmapala, taxing cash flows on the consumer's side may be an alternative approach for reform.

Shedding light on the sustainability of tax systems from various angles

The third Annual MaTax Conference offered a total of 33 presentations provided by researchers who had been selected in advance by the organisation committee, among numerous submissions from Germany and abroad. In eleven parallel sessions, the international researchers discussed the latest results from empirical and theoretical taxation research. Topics under discussion included existing norms of taxation and their distributional, decision-making and tax burden effects; the ideal benefits of tax systems; as well as necessary reform plans. The presentations covered a broad range of topics, including different types of taxation and the various actors involved in the process. Further issues addressed by the speakers concerned the factors which potentially influence tax avoidance and evasion, the effect of indirect taxes, the mobility of highly-taxed individuals, the tax sensitivity of investment decisions, research activities, as well as distributional factors of taxation and consequences of EU reforms.

MaTax ScienceCampus enjoys great international reputation

The conference participants were eager to engage in lively discussions and seized the opportunity to partake in top-level scientific exchanges. Since its launch in 2014, MaTax has enjoyed an excellent reputation. This is reflected in the warm response from the participants and in the variety of the programme, which featured numerous renowned speakers. Professor Christoph Spengel, ZEW research associate and MaTax director, also emphasised the success of the conference in his opening speech. Next year will again see numerous events, many of which will draw on international cooperation. MaTax is funded jointly by ZEW, the University of Mannheim, the State of Baden-Württemberg, and the Leibniz Association, of which ZEW is a member. The ScienceCampus further collaborates with the Institute for Financial and Tax Law of Heidelberg University. MaTax currently involves 15 professors and 60 junior researchers.