The Distribution of Income of Self-employed, Entrepreneurs and Professions as Revealed from Micro Income Tax Statistics in Germany



Merz: The Distribution of Income of Self-employed, Entrepreneurs and Professions

13


6 Results I: The Income Distribution of Employees and Self-
Employed (Entrepreneurs and Professions*6)

6.1 Predominant Income from Different Sources - The Overall
Picture

Before discussing the income distribution of employees, entrepreneurs and professions
as single groups defined via predominant income let us briefly integrate the single group
figures within the overall picture of predominant income as given by the Income Tax
Statsistics 1992 in Germany.

As it can be seen in Table 2 the dominant group are the employees with 87,2% (ca. 24
Mrd. persons) of all income tax payers and a taxable income of about 80% (1.000 Mrd.
DM) of the total amount of taxable income. With a mean taxable income of 42.294 DM
per year they show the second smallest mean income of all dependent and self-
employed working groups.

Table 2: Predominant Income from Different Sources: Income Tax
Statistic 1992 Overall Results1)

Predominant
income from

Tax payers
(n)

Tax
payers
(%)

Taxable
income
(Mio. DM)

Taxable
income
(%)_____

Taxable
income
Mean

Agriculture,
Forestry

205.170

0,8

7.611

0,6

37.096

Trading

1.311.449

4,8

132.682

10,7

101.172

Independent
workers2
)

431.991

1,6

56.343

4,5

130.426

Employee

23.691.661

87,2

1.002.009

80,5

42.294

Capital assets

436.689

1,6

26.346

2,1

60.331

Let and lease

313.818

1,2

13.062

1,0

41.623

Other income

767.935

2,8

6.954

0,6______

9.055

Total

27.158.713

100,0

1.245.007

100,0

45.841

Professions 3)     ~

515.544

1,9

61.562

4,9______

119.412

Professions 4)   ~

958.196

3,5

64.114

5,1______

66.911

1) Without loss cases

2) Professions are by far the dominant group of the independent workers ('Selbstandige', income tax
definition).

3) With predominant professional income

4) With any professional income

Because of the different account for the spouse’s situation within the professions and within the
independent workers by the Federal Statistical Office, however, the figures of professions and all
other income sources (as for independent workers, for instance) in this table are not directly
comparable

Source: Federal Statistical Office (1998) , p.1-24

6 Since professions are by far the dominant group of the 'independent' workers (‘Selbstandige’, income tax definition)
we use professions* (with star) as a synonym for the independent workers.



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