Germany is debating how couples should be taxed. This game lets you take a position — and then live with it.
You will first cast a vote for one of two tax systems. You will then be placed into a series of households and decide, in each one, how many hours to work under the system you chose. After each decision, an assessment notice shows what your choice earned — and what the system you declined would have offered.
The tax world here is deliberately simple. Earnings first lose a flat social contribution of 20%. On what remains, the first 1.000 € per month is tax-free. Above that, the marginal rate starts at 15% on the first taxed euro and rises smoothly — in the spirit of the German formula — until it reaches its maximum of 55% at a taxable income of 6.000 € per month. Every euro beyond that is taxed at 55%. Families receive a monthly child payment. Everything else is left out; the numbers are game parameters, not tax advice.
Each week holds 40 hours. Hours you do not sell on the market are spent at home. Before working, you will state what an hour of home time is worth to you, in euros. Your score in each household is take-home pay plus home time, valued at your own price. There is no correct number of hours — only the number that fits the prices.
Germany is reforming how couples are taxed. Which system do you support?
Germany is reforming how couples are taxed. Which system do you support?
Same question, same wording. Only you have changed, or not.
Your efficiency — how well you found the crossing points
Your regime — what your vote earned or cost, best against best
One number measures you. The other measures the policy. They are not the same thing.