Search

Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit den Einkünften aus Kapitalvermögen inklusive den neuen Kryptowährungen und der Sicherung des Abgabenanspruchs. Im ersten Kapitel dieser Bachelorarbeit werde ich die Einkünfte aus Kapitalvermögen vorstellen und die geänderte Besteuerung ausführen. Um den genauen Abgabenanspruch für die Abgabenbehörde zu ermitteln, werde ich im zweiten Kapitel der Bachelorarbeit näher darauf eingehen. Eine Zusammenfassung am Ende wird die wichtigste Forschungsfrage klären, wie die Abgabenbehörden zu den genauen Daten für eine korrekte Besteuerung kommen. This thesis deals with the income from capital assets including the new cryptocurrencies and the protection of the tax claim. In the first chapter of this bachelor thesis, I will introduce the income from capital assets and explain the changed taxation. In order to determine the exact levy claim for the levy authority, I will go into more detail in the second chapter of the bachelor thesis. A summary at the end will clarify the most important research question, how the tax authorities arrive at the exact data for correct taxation.

Einleitend befasst sich diese Bachelorarbeit mit der historischen Entwicklung des internationalen Informationsaustausches, in besonderer Hinsicht auf Einkünfte aus Kapitalvermögen. In Kapitel 1 werden daher FATCA sowie die Steuerabkommen mit der Schweiz und Liechtenstein näher erläutert, da diese auch die Basis für den neuen GMSG in Österreich darstellen. Der Gemeinsame Meldestandard in Österreich, der die nationale Umsetzung des CRS der OECD darstellt, ist der Kern dieser Arbeit. Kapitel 2 befasst sich demnach aus österreichsicher Sicht vor allem mit den Fragen, welches Institut welche Informationen an welches am CRS teilnehmende Land weiterleiten muss. Da der CRS einen reziproken Informationsaustausch vorsieht, gehe ich in Kapitel 3 auf jene Informationen ein, die nun die österreichischen Finanzbehörden erhalten. Dies umfasst eine Analyse der DAC2-Meldung sowie eine ertragssteuerliche Beurteilung der drauf ausgewiesenen Kapitaleinkünfte. Da bei internationalen Sachverhalten stets auch die jeweiligen Doppelbesteuerungsabkommen in Betracht gezogen werden müssen, soll auch eine Analyse der Zuteilungsregeln und eventuellen Quellenbesteuerung und -anrechnung nicht fehlen. Initially, this bachelor thesis deals with the historical development of the international exchange of information, in particular with regard to income from capital assets. Chapter 1 therefore explains FATCA and the tax treaties with Switzerland and Liechtenstein in more detail, as these also form the basis for the new GMSG in Austria. The Common Reporting Standard in Austria, which represents the national implementation of the OECD's CRS, is the focus of this thesis. Accordingly, from an Austrian perspective, chapter 2 deals mainly with the questions of which institution must transmit which information to which CRS participating country. Since the CRS provides a reciprocal exchange of information, I address in chapter 3 the information that the Austrian tax authorities now receive. This includes an analysis of the DAC2 reports and an income tax related evaluation of the capital income reported on them. Since the corresponding double taxation treaties must always be taken into account in international scenarios, an analysis of the allocation rules and possible withholding taxation and its crediting will also be included.

This dissertation investigates empirically the degree of implementation of Behavioral Finance theory in the investment fund industry. In a first step the author identifies the most prominent Behavioral Finance based investment strategies according to academic literature. Then, based on regression analysis, the author examines the extent to which German and U.S. mutual fund managers apply Behavioral Finance based investment strategies, and how great the resulting success is. The findings show that, while their degree of implementation remains low particularly in Germany, Behavioral Finance based investment strategies do, on the whole, have a positive impact on fund performance. The established financial theory builds on efficient markets and rational behavior of market participants. It further postulates that stock prices immediately as well as comprehensively incorporate all available information, and that active asset management cannot sustainably generate positive excess returns. However, extensive empirical research shows that stock prices do not always fully adjust to new relevant information. The relatively recent Behavioral Finance theory addresses in particular the emergence of systematic distortions in asset prices, driven by emotions and cognitive biases. In contrast to the established view, Behavioral Finance theory builds on limited arbitrage and market participants that do not always act rationally. In particular over- and underreaction can cause that asset prices deviate from the fundamentally justified levels in a predictable manner. Hence, active investment strategies that use the insights of Behavioral Finance and exploit systematic market distortions should generate significant excess returns. Measured by the number of pertinent research projects the most important behavioral investment strategies are the momentum, contrarian, and earnings surprise strategies, whose justification is usually directly and almost exclusively associated with the bounded rationality of human decision behavior. On the other hand, the author also includes in the investigations the classic style strategies size and value, even though there is controversy in the pertinent literature as to whether the profitability of these strategies might not also be explicable as justified risk premium in an efficient market setting with rational market participants. The author calculates historical returns for each strategy over the test period 1/1990 to 12/2005. The results show that several strategies generate significant excess returns if applied to the US and German stock market. However, the volatility of strategy returns over time points out that the underlying market inefficiencies are by far not as systematic and predictable as the Behavioral Finance theory suggests. Applying multiple linear regression analysis the author measures the degree of implementation of different sets of behavioral and style strategies within the US and German fund industry. The sample of investigated funds comprises in total 2,778 US American and 111 German actively managed equity funds with a local investment focus. The empirical analysis shows the following results: A small group of US American funds, so called Behavioral Finance funds, explicitly refers to Behavioral Finance in the external communication. As a matter of fact some of these funds apply behavioral investment strategies and generate positive excess returns. Prominent examples are the Fuller & Thaler funds that are grounded in the academic field of Behavioral Finance. Although behavioral strategies represent only a fraction of the overall investment strategy of these funds, results support a positive correlation between degree of implementation of the strategies and fund performance. Thus, applying behavioral as well as style strategies pays out for the managers of (and investors in) selective Behavioral Finance funds. Whereas also the results for the other US funds indicate a certain degree of implementation of style strategies and selective use of behavioral strategies, the German funds analyzed here rarely apply these strategies. The latter rather focus on replicating the overall market index and do that with very limited success. Two possible explanations come to mind that could explain the yet limited degree of implementation of behavioral and style strategies: i) transaction costs that might erase the excess return of a strategy when it comes to practical implementation, and ii) the attempt of fund managers to avoid dissonance that would emerge from a possible negative deviation from market return. Complementary analysis shows that excess returns of selective investment strategies remain significant when accounting for transaction costs. The possibility of dissonance avoidance is not assessed in further detail, but could mark a starting point for future research in this field.