Taxation of public sector entities and public economic law - coherent dogmatics of economic aktivities of public sector entities

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Michael Droege
• Subject Area: Public Law
• Term: from 2013 to 2016
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 244841960

The economic activity of the public authorities is a matter of the public economy law as well as the fiscal law. The taxation of the public authorities has taken a dynamic evolution during the past years. Under the circumstances of the progressing European influence, the profit tax privileges of the public authorities are getting under compulsion. Above all, the coverage of their partial tax liability changes under reference to the principle of economic neutrality. This has led to an extension of tax liability especially for the turnover tax law. The dogmatics and the jurisdiction of the tax law are cautiously exploring the effects on the fiscal results of the changing situation. The jurisprudential discussion blots out the principle of economic neutrality although the public economy law took manifold advantage of this principle. Being two independent law systems, the fiscal law and the public economy law are largely unrelated. According to its economic activities the public authorities are affected by the effects of both, the fiscal and the public economy law. Nevertheless both broach the issue of the boundary lines between the economic activities of public authorities and the private economy. Therefore it is necessary to refer these matters to each other. This jurisprudential desideratum is the matter of this project. It reaches for a dogmatic realignment of the taxation of the public authorities through a comparison between the public economy law and the fiscal law and aims at the synthesis of their dogmatic structures. The project is going to place special emphasis on the fiscal basic conditions for the economic activity of the public authorities according to the turnover tax law with a focus on its historical development. The partial tax liability of the public authorities at the end of the Weimar Republic indicates a historical parallel to the limitations of the municipal economic activities. This hypothesis has not been researched yet and supposed to be examined by this project. In front of the historical background the revealed dogmatic structures and their underlying principles of law are be analyzed with regards to the public economy law. Important results can be expected for the fiscal law relating to the development of the principle of economic neutrality. In addition to that, the legal protection of the private economy in the context of the public economy law can be a useful addition in the discussion about the legal action against competitors in the fiscal law. Not just because of its quantitative importance the economic activity and the taxation of the municipality shall be placed in the foreground of this research project.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants