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The Germany tax rates for an individual are 14% - 45% of their total income. Singles pay on income above EUR 250,731 (couples, on income above EUR 501,462) income tax of 45% before 5.5% solidarity tax and 8%-9% church tax.  An individual is liable for tax on his income as an employee and on income as a self-employed person. An individual who meets the test of a "permanent resident" of Germany will have the tax calculated on his income in Germany and from overseas

The Australian government needed, as many other governments do, more revenue. They decide to implement a carbon and mining levy tax. The carbon tax forces firms to pay 23 australian dollars per tonne of carbon dioxide, shifting supply to the left, as carbon dioxide produced forces tax on the firms as well as encouraging them to leave less of a carbon footprint.The mining levy tax, puts a direct ad valorem tax on firms who gathering iron and coal. These taxes have allowed for worker's taxes to be decreased, therefore shifting the tax burden from workers to firms that are enviromentally harming.

The article Chicago's cigarette tax could approach New York's (by Megan Hickey) focused on the possibility of Chicago increasing taxes on cigarettes. There are several underlying reasons for the proposal; one being a $298 million budget shortage, the other to increase awareness of smoking for health purposes. Chicago already has the second highest tax on cigarettes in the US, the average cost for a pack being $10.25, after New York at $12.50. The total combined tax amount is $5.67 which is made up of a federal tax of $1.01, Cook County tax of $2, Illinois tax of $1.98 and a government tax of $0.68. The possibility of increasing this tax would lead to less consumption of the product, less revenue for tobacco companies and more deadweight loss for consumers and producers. However the Chicagoan government believes that the health benefits gained from less tobacco consumption are far greater than that of cost. To continue this tax hike (continued increase in the tax of cigarettes) would continue the trend of declining tobacco consumption and could decrease the youth in smoking by 7.2%. Not only would the state receive health benefits but the government would be able to increase their revenue through this tax hike.

Recently regarding the current change in the governments to attempt and reduce the gas emissions, the UK government has started taking action regarding the taxation of the cars. In order to try and promote the more green efficient cars and the hybrids that emit below 130g/km of CO2 will pay nzero on the first year road tax and for the cars that emit less that 100 g/km will also pay zero on road tax. Moreover, in order to discourage people from demanding less of the more heavy emitting CO2 cars such as big SUV the government will start taxing much more heavily those cars. They also will start changing the road tax, they will charge them according to their emissions. In conclusion the lower the emissions the cheaper the tax will be ultimately making the consumers shift their demand from the larger or higher CO2 emitting cars towards the more green and low CO2 emitting cars.

In 2009 the federal government in the USA decided to raise the cigarette tax from 69 cents to 1.01 dollars which applies to all tobacco products. The tax increase was originally issued to fund a child insurance program but the law was vetoed by president Bush although the tax increase on tobacco products remained. Previous tax increases in the cigarette tax reduced consumption by 4%, however these were lower increases and it is predicted by the Office of Smoking and Health Center that 1 million of the 45 million smokers will quit.

In an attempt to impede on music and film piracy, the Dutch government will implement a tax on smartphones, laptops, and mp3 players (among other devices) as of January 1st, 2013. The tax will be based on the storage capacity of devices, allowing anything from empty CD-ROMs to set-top boxes to be taxed. A maximum fixed levy of five Euros will be placed on devices, some only with a fixed levy of one or two Euros. Thus, the producers and consumers of smaller, less expensive devices will feel the effect of these fixed levies more than those of laptop and smartphone producers for example, as the fixed levies will be a larger proportion of the price for cheaper products. The tax revenues will be distributed among the affected industries. 

The taxes on Cigarettes in Chicago are likely to rise in the coming months. The hike would push the combined tax on a pack of cigarettes to $6.67 in Chicago - the second-highest in the nation behind New York City at $6.86 - but would save some 10,300 Cook County residents from premature, smoking related deaths and trigger a 7.2 percent drop in young smokers, Preckwinkle said in the article. It is hoped that the increase in price for cigarettes will result in more and more people refraining from purchasing cigarettes, in an attempt to make people healthier, cut medical costs and make the city healthier. This is an example of VAT tax, or value added tax, on cigarettes.

The government wants to implement a one dollar raise in taxes on cigarettes, in order to ward consumers off them. The government is doing so to warn how dangerous and harmful cigarettes are.They want to discourage children and teens from smoking. Another reason for the tax raise of $1.98 is to help pay the state's rising cots for health care for the poor. There was a $2.7 billion shortage in the Medicaid funding, which needs to be recovered through collecting taxes. As cigarettes are quite inelastic, people will continue to buy them even if the price increases, as they are an addictive good and cannot be put down easily. Substitutes would not be an option in this case, as there is a tax added on other tobacco products as well.

Mario Monti, Italy's prime minister stated that the richer population of Italy, the ones who own multiple large motoryachts, are the ones that happen to not be paying taxes. He states that it is a struggle to confront tax evaders, and that it is "like a war". The tax evasion causes a large gap in Italian stretched public finances. These boat owners are seen as the ones who do not pay their share, mostly because the paying of boat taxes depends on its size. Between 10-12 meters, €800 are required, 20-24 is €4,400 and anything above 64 meters is €25,000. Obviously, having to make these payments do not please the boat owners, and unsurprisingly, they have fled to more welcoming harbors, where getting a spot costs much less. Many of these flee to Croatia or Corsica, which causes business in many Italian harbors to drop by a lot, specifically 50% in Rome's marina Ostia.

In this article it is described, how the winners off a medal at the Olympic Games are celebrated like heroes. They also receive honorariums. A gold medal winner receives $ 25'000. Nevertheless the winners will have to pay taxes from this honorarium. For winning the gold medal they will have to pay a tax of $ 8'965. Now if we look back at 2008 when Michael Phelps won 8 gold medals, he would have to pay a high tax for winning his gold medals.

Car owners in Beijing are facing a possible oncoming tax. This is the resort that the Chinese government has taken in an effort to fight the ever-worsening traffic in the city. By fighting the huge amounts of traffic in major cities, the government fights the pollution of air. It is estimated that in 2012, seven million cars will be on Beijing roads (a huge and sharp increase from the 4.7 million in 2010). Other than a tax, the government is hoping to add the restriction of only one car per resident, while non-Beijing residents are only allowed to purchase a car before buying an apartment and a parking permit. Car owners are already paying a 30,000 yuan (S$5,900) for each car they own, yet the Beijing government hopes to have tax incentives for cars with engine sizes of 1.6 litres or smaller.

The government wants to increase the taxing on alcohol in New York to make New Yorker's drink less and get them healthier. The Government's Health Department is agreeing that with the new tax increase on alcohol is would help New Yorker's get healthier by increasing taxes for example beer would be taxed 17 cents more and a bottle of hard liquor to 50 cents. New Yorkers original 7.4 cents of taxes on a bottle of beer, 36.9 cents on a bottle of wine and $3.61 on a standard 750-ml bottle of hard liquor.New York has counted 1,700 alcohol-related deaths in 2008 and the Health Department wants to reduce high drinking deaths by 16% and hospitalized alcohol accidents by 19% by the year 2012.

In this Article it is perfctly shown how the goverment can control a country with taxes. by putting the taxes so far up for alcohol the people will think twice if they really need alchohol or not. By changing the system from a overall tax for all different kinds of alcohol to a more individual with respekt to the strength of the liquor a more fair and logical system was created. this enables the citizens to consume wine and beer which are less "dangerous" and harmful than hard liquor which may cause or enhance the chances of physical fight, destruction or vandalism on public streets. A bottle of wine, where this is less likely to happen, might even generate more income if taxes are low so people drink more of it in restaurants or at home to dinner.

In my article, the Swiss government has decided to increase the tax on cigarette packs by 20 centimes ($0.20). The government has also given manufacturers 3 months to 'adjust' their prices, which also implies that firms are being given time to increase their production (positive relationship between supply and prices). In this case, consumers will not be effected by a price change, as cigarettes are an addictive good. Cigarettes also have a very inelastic demand curve. 

Throughout the first six months of the year Lego posted an increase in profit of 36%, revenue increase of 24%, however the demands for the Lego products along with all of the toy market has started to fall. This has been the most negative toy market in the U.S. for now. The reason for why the toy market has started to record such negative results are various factors. Amongst those factors were the approaching presidential elections meaning that taxes will go up for all the people making them want to save up more. Moreover the rising debt and the huge economic uncertainty going throughout the country has also started to deeply affect the toy market, making people have to spend less which ultimately leads the consumer to buy or spend less money on their products leading to worse economic results and making the toy market decrease.

Weather disruptions and rising energy expenses have increased grain costs at record high. Current supplies may be ample to start unrest caused by the high food prices. With droughts in the Soviet Union and weak monsoon rains in India, corn and soybean prices last month exceeded records. It is said that U.S consumers might need to pay 3 to 4 percent more on food next year because of the effect droughts have on store shelves. Places such as the middle east and North Sub-Saharan Africa are at a great risk since most of their products are imported. Because of this supply shock, there is a negative shift along the supply line as supplies are becoming more expensive. With the addition of governmental intervention such as taxes, firms will have a much lower profit this year on grain supplies.Also there will be less products for the firms to sell. Not only does this affect firms but as stated before, the world should be ready for a food price increase in the coming year.

Becuase of weather changes, there is a scarcity issue in the amount of food that his growing around the world. In economic terms, this means that the supply curve has shifted to the left created a new Equilibrium point. Because of this, the price has increased as the good is more scarce and of course, the supply has decreased. This means that the demand for the good has decreased and consumers have to ration their food even more. Because of this change in supply, there are less resources on the market so because of this scarcity issue, the prices have to go up so that producers get some sort of income. Unfortunately, this means that the consumers have little or no marginal benefit as the price increases. The demand for the good is still high as everyone wants to be able to buy good but unfortunately the price is too high and consumers are not able to buy the product. The marginal benefit decreases for both the consumer and the producer.