Paul Kirchhof
When his father was appointed as a judge at the Federal Court of Justice, the family moved to Karlsruhe. Kirchhof went to school there and graduated from high school. He then studied law and received his doctorate in this subject at the University of Munich. In 1974 he completed his habilitation at the University of Heidelberg. Kirchhof then received an appointment as a full professor at the Institute for Tax Law at the University of Münster, where he taught and headed the institute until 1981. He then moved to Heidelberg University as a professor and director of the Institute for Financial and Tax Law, where he has worked ever since.
In 1987, at the suggestion of the CDU, Kirchhof was appointed as a non-party judge to the second senate of the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe. He held this position, in which he was particularly notable for his family-friendly tax law, until 1999. In 2000, Kirchhof founded the Federal Tax Code Research Center at his Heidelberg institute. Through their research, he came up with a new, transparent tax model, according to which the state should tax a maximum of half of the target income from an asset (principle of half-sharing). Politics soon became interested in his ideas.
In the run-up to the 2002 federal election, CDU tax expert Friedrich Merz used Kirchhof's results as the basis for his tax model. The so-called "Kirchof model" envisages a reduction in tax types to just three categories: income tax, sales tax and inheritance and gift tax. After deducting a basic allowance of 8,000 euros and an additional lump sum for acquisition costs of 2,000 euros, the income - with the abolition of all previous tax subsidies - is to be taxed according to a three-tier rate: up to the first 5,000 euros of annual income, 15% is charged, for the next 5,000 Euros, i.e. up to 10,000 euros, 20% is due and from 10,000 euros 25% income tax is due.
The tax expert was now increasingly offered public positions in journalism and business: In 2003, Kirchhoff became co-editor of the weekly newspaper "Rheinischer Merkur". At the end of 2004 he joined the supervisory board of Deutsche Bank. In the run-up to the early federal elections in September 2005, the non-party Kirchhof joined the competence team of the Union candidate for chancellor Angela Merkel as a budget and finance expert. If the Union won the election, Kirchhof was initially seen as the future finance minister of a black-yellow government coalition. He therefore committed himself to implementing the CDU tax model, the simplification of which did not go as far as planned in the Kirchof model.
In the long term, however, the Union certainly held out the prospect of implementing a tax reform in the spirit of Kirchhof. This threat caused a collapse in votes for the conservative candidate for chancellor. After Merkel's poor performance in the federal election on September 18, 2005, Kirchhof announced his withdrawal from active politics.
Paul Kirchhof has been married since 1968 and has four children.
In 1987, at the suggestion of the CDU, Kirchhof was appointed as a non-party judge to the second senate of the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe. He held this position, in which he was particularly notable for his family-friendly tax law, until 1999. In 2000, Kirchhof founded the Federal Tax Code Research Center at his Heidelberg institute. Through their research, he came up with a new, transparent tax model, according to which the state should tax a maximum of half of the target income from an asset (principle of half-sharing). Politics soon became interested in his ideas.
In the run-up to the 2002 federal election, CDU tax expert Friedrich Merz used Kirchhof's results as the basis for his tax model. The so-called "Kirchof model" envisages a reduction in tax types to just three categories: income tax, sales tax and inheritance and gift tax. After deducting a basic allowance of 8,000 euros and an additional lump sum for acquisition costs of 2,000 euros, the income - with the abolition of all previous tax subsidies - is to be taxed according to a three-tier rate: up to the first 5,000 euros of annual income, 15% is charged, for the next 5,000 Euros, i.e. up to 10,000 euros, 20% is due and from 10,000 euros 25% income tax is due.
The tax expert was now increasingly offered public positions in journalism and business: In 2003, Kirchhoff became co-editor of the weekly newspaper "Rheinischer Merkur". At the end of 2004 he joined the supervisory board of Deutsche Bank. In the run-up to the early federal elections in September 2005, the non-party Kirchhof joined the competence team of the Union candidate for chancellor Angela Merkel as a budget and finance expert. If the Union won the election, Kirchhof was initially seen as the future finance minister of a black-yellow government coalition. He therefore committed himself to implementing the CDU tax model, the simplification of which did not go as far as planned in the Kirchof model.
In the long term, however, the Union certainly held out the prospect of implementing a tax reform in the spirit of Kirchhof. This threat caused a collapse in votes for the conservative candidate for chancellor. After Merkel's poor performance in the federal election on September 18, 2005, Kirchhof announced his withdrawal from active politics.
Paul Kirchhof has been married since 1968 and has four children.
