Dominika Langenmayr: Steuerrabatte kaufen noch keine Maschinen
Die Bundesregierung lässt Unternehmen Investitionsgüter schneller abschreiben und senkt ab 2028 die Körperschaftsteuer. Doch Firmen investieren nur, wenn sie mit Erträgen rechnen.
Last week, American economist Robert E. Hall received the prestigious Nobel Prize in Economics. Alongside Michael Woodford, he was honored for their work on the microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic stabilization policies. However, Hall has also authored other influential studies. In the field of economics, he is particularly known for a 1967 paper co-authored with Dale W. Jorgenson titled "Tax Policy and Investment Behavior." In this work, they explain how tax policy affects the amount of investment businesses undertake.
The fundamental idea is straightforward: A company purchases an additional machine when its expected return covers its costs. Hall and Jorgenson calculated these so-called capital utilization costs. These include the price of the machine, its depreciation over time, the current interest rate, and tax regulations such as depreciation rates and the tax rate.
It is taken into account that money tied up in a machine cannot be used elsewhere or that the company may need to take out a loan to finance the purchase. The more generous a company can write off the acquisition for tax purposes, the more favorable the investment becomes.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
