Top one percent earners pay 25 percent of income tax

In 2007, 383,000 Germans earned more than €172,000, the statistics revealed, while half of Germany’s 38.4 million tax-payers earned less than €22,500.

While Germans had a total income of €1.2 trillion in that year, the tax man claimed €211 billion, an increase of €30.1 billion (16.7 percent) over 2004. There was also a 9.6 percent increase in the number of taxpayers in that period.

While the top one percent of income earners – all those who earned €172,000 or more – covered 25 percent of the total income tax, those earning €22.500 or less contributed 3.6 percent of the total income tax.

DAPD/The Local/bk