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Cross-border
economic
development
23
Territory portraits: economic development on different borders
Upper Rhine
(France - Germany - Switzerland)
Comparison of framework
conditions
There is a noticeable difference in framework conditions between France
and Germany in the Upper Rhine region, mainly in terms of business
taxes. Employers’ contributions are roughly twice as high on the French
side of the border and are generally considered by entrepreneurs in
Baden to be a barrier to setting up in Alsace.
27
Corporation tax stands at
33% in France, compared with 15% in Germany since 2008, following
27
Source: Study by Ernst & Young,
Dynamique entrepreneuriale dans le Rhin Supérieur
(Entrepreneurial dynamics in the Upper Rhine region)
, November 2012.
a series of measures to substantially reduce and simplify the rate of
tax and social security contributions initiated in 2000. However, these
differences with the situation in France need to be put in perspective
since the German Gewerbesteuer, a tax on industrial and commercial
activities, which stands at close to 15%, is payable in addition to
corporation tax. Even if it remains four percentage points higher in
France, the actual level of taxation of company profits is thus relatively
similar in the two countries. As for wage costs, these remain comparable
on both sides of the Rhine.
28
On the other hand, differences are much
more marked in comparison with Switzerland.
29
28
Source: Report by France’s Court of Auditors,
Les prélèvements fiscaux et sociaux en France
et en Allemagne (Taxes and social security contributions in France and Germany)
, March 2011.
29
See Portrait of a territory – France-Switzerland.
Portrait of a territory
FRANCE
GERMANY
Trier
50 km
Bas-Rhin
Haut-Rhin
ALSACE
Strasbourg
Basel
Karlsruhe
Freiburg
BADEN-WÜRTTEMBERG
Colmar
Trinational
Eurodistrict Basel
Eurodistrict
Strasbourg-Ortenau
Eurodistrict PAMINA
INTERREG
Upper Rhine
Luxembourg
RHINELAND-
PALATINATE
Mainz
SWI TZERLAND
EGTC
LGCC
Conseil Rhénan
Eurodistrict Region Freiburg /
Centre et Sud Alsace
Upper Rhine
Conference