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In light of the allocative and distributive importance of taxes for the state and its economic actors, several scientific research facilities address their effects, their application, or their distribution. The tax disciplines can be broken down into the three sub-areas: tax law, financial science, and business taxation. The object of experience for all three disciplines is the phenomenon “taxes”, although the respective subject matters of their research differ. The demarcations between the individual areas are fluid.

The discipline of tax law considers taxation to be a legal process. This discipline concentrates on the legal aspects of taxation and is concerned with the relationship between the state and its citizens with regard to taxation. The subject matter includes issues in the construction of tax provisions or the examination of their conformity with the constitution and/or the law of the European Union.

The discipline of financial science forms part of political economics and is thus macro-economically orientated. The economic actions of the state form the object of knowledge, to the extent that earnings and expenses are included. The discipline of financial science addresses, for example, issues involving the just distribution of tax revenue or the minimization of negative effects of taxation on production, consumption and competition (influence on the allocation of resources, minimization of deadweight loss).

The subject matter of business taxation is the examination of effects of taxation on the business activities of companies. There are four main scientific areas of research within the discipline of business taxation:

•Problem-oriented assessment of tax law (presentation of legal norms): Knowledge of the most important national and international tax provisions is of fundamental importance for the discipline of business taxation.

•Theory of tax effects in business economics: Analysis and description of the influence of taxation on the variables of fundamental importance to decisions made by economic actors.

•Theory of tax planning in business economics: Advice for the decisionmakers of a company in exercising options under tax law and in the arrangement of planned circumstances in order to minimize the total tax burden.

•The evaluative-normative theory of business taxation: Critical opinions on the current state of tax law (de lege lata) as well as planned changes (de lege ferenda).

It is an indispensable prerequisite to first examine tax law in terms of a portrayal of legal norms because tax law constitutes, on the one hand, the framework within which fiscal arrangements are made and, on the other hand, the instrument of such arrangements. Building on this, the effects of taxation can be examined for subsequent targeted tax planning afterwards.