Henry M. Ordower (St. Louis) presents Horizontal and Vertical Equity in Taxation as Constitutional Principles:  Germany and the United States Contrasted at the New Zealand Centre for Public Law today at 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm:

While the U.S. Supreme Court has resolved many tax controversies, only infrequently has the Court looked to the Constitution to find a basis for its decision, and never has it held a federal tax law to conflict with the individual’s basic rights and privileges that the U. S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights guarantees. The German Constitutional Court, on the other hand, frequently has held tax laws to conflict with similar basic individual rights and privileges under the German Basic Law.

In Germany, constitutional protections of individual liberties require parity – horizontal equity — among taxpayers and suggest, but, do not require, progressivity in taxation – vertical equity. Decisions of the German Constitutional Court have determined the protections to be robust and have rendered such matters as mandatory joint assessment of married couples, retroactive application of rate increases, deductibility of political contributions, income taxation of the subsistence minimum, and, quite recently, a tax that the government in practice could not assess and collect uniformly unconstitutional.

The presentation will outline similarities and differences in the tax systems of Germany and the United States, discuss a few principal constitutional tax law decisions in Germany, and suggest hypotheses for the contrast between Germany and the United States in constitutional jurisprudence in taxation.