MaTax Kick-Off Conference – Researchers from Germany and Abroad Discussed a Sustainable Tax System at ZEW

The central issue of the Leibniz ScienceCampus “Mannheim Taxation” (MaTax) is the design of a sustainable tax system which can adapt to and meet future economical and societal challenges on the national, European, and global level.

MaTax, a scientific cooperation between the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) and the University of Mannheim, formally started its work on April 1, 2014. Invitations to the first MaTax conference in Mannheim from September 17 to 18, 2014 were issued to researchers from Germany and abroad – about 80 of them decided to follow the invitation.

For two days they discussed current taxation issues, ranging from the design possibilities that international enterprises have when transferring profits into low-tax countries, to easing the tax burden for corporate research and development activities, to the consequences of an increased exchange of information between tax authorities.

The first international MaTax conference ended with a ceremony attended by the Minister of Science of Baden-Württemberg, Theresia Bauer, and the president of the Leibniz Association, Prof. Dr. Matthias Kleiner. In her speech, the Minister of Science showed her pride in the successful creation of a centre of excellence for taxation in the metropolitan region Rhine-Neckar. She commended that most of the work of MaTax is focussed on real life challenges posed by society as a whole and was very optimistic that MaTax will establish itself as a leading think-tank in Europe with internationally renowned expertise in tax policy.

Prof. Dr. Matthias Kleiner, President of the Leibniz Association, was pleased to see that with MaTax the close research cooperation between ZEW, a member of the Leibniz Association, and the University of Mannheim has already resulted in the creation of a second Leibniz ScienceCampus. “It was high time to create a centre of excellence for taxation”, he said. To him, Mannheim seems the perfect place to do so since ZEW and the university have highly promising potentials in this field of research. MaTax will not just bundle these potentials, but has already succeeded in winning over renowned tax experts as cooperation partners. These aspects have convinced him that “In future we will certainly hear a lot about MaTax.”

MaTax is supported by the ZEW, the University of Mannheim, the State of Baden-Württemberg and Leibniz Association. The ScienceCampus furthermore cooperates with the Institute of Financial and Fiscal Law at the University of Heidelberg. At present, 15 professors and 60 up-and-coming researchers work together in the framework of MaTax.

For further information please contact

PD Dr. Friedrich Heinemann, phone +49 (0)621/1235-149, e-mail heinemann@zew.de

Prof. Dr. Christoph Spengel, phone +49 (0)621/181-1704, e-mail spengel@uni-mannheim.de