In the wake of the 2007 financial crisis Germany's stock of gross financial assets increased significantly, turning it into the second largest stock among OECD countries after the US. [1] Yet research has shown that the more that the government owns of an enterprise, the more extreme the level of tax avoidance. [2]
| Company | share | direct Owner | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Autobahn GmbH des Bundes | full ownership | Germany | Operator of the German express way network. |
| Deutsche Bahn | full ownership | Germany | |
| DFS Deutsche Flugsicherung GmbH | full ownership | Germany | |
| Hapag Lloyd | 23.2% | Hamburg | |
| Airbus/EADS | 12% [3] | 28% total with France and Spain | |
| Commerzbank | 15,6% | KfW | |
| Volkswagen Group | 12.7% | Lower-Saxony | 20% of voting rights |
| KfW Bank | Full Ownership | German government | following assets amounting to a worth of $70.6Bn |
| Deutsche Telekom | 31,9% | Germany over KfW | |
| Deutsche Post | 25.5% | Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action | Assets including DHL and Deutsche Postbank are therefore also partially owned by the government |
| Hypo Real Estate | Full Ownership | SoFFin | Seized by SoFFin in 2009 to restore financial stability to the German housing market |
| Bundesdruckerei | Full Ownership | Federal Print Office, Renationalised in 2013 | |
| RAG AG | Full Ownership | RAG-Stiftung | RAG-Stiftung is a foundation held by the federal republic and the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Saarland |
| Evonik Industries | 58,9% [4] | RAG-Stiftung | RAG-Stiftung is a foundation held by the federal republic and the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Saarland |
| Uniper | Full Ownership | Germany | Emergency rescue in 2022 [5] |
Note that many smaller State owned enterprises are owned by individual states of Germany such as TransnetBW and Rothaus (State Brewery of Baden).
On a local and regional level, public transport is often operated by SOE, such as BVB (Berlin), Hochbahn (Hamburg) or LVB (Leipzig). Power generation, water and gas supply were until the 1990s often publicly owned (Stadtwerke) - the picture is much more diverse today, involving often forms of PPP, but with the local governments still exercising considerable control.
The economy of Luxembourg is largely dependent on the banking, steel, and industrial sectors. Citizens of Luxembourg enjoy the highest per capita gross domestic product in the world, according to an IMF estimate in 2022. Among OECD nations, Luxembourg has a highly efficient and strong social security system; social welfare expenditure stood at roughly 21.9% of GDP.
A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a business entity created or owned by a national or local government, either through an executive order or legislation. SOEs aim to generate profit for the government, prevent private sector monopolies, provide goods at lower prices, implement government policies, or serve remote areas where private businesses are scarce. The government typically holds full or majority ownership and oversees operations. SOEs have a distinct legal structure, with financial and developmental goals, like making services more accessible while earning profit. They can be considered as government-affiliated entities designed to meet commercial and state capitalist objectives.
An offshore bank is a bank that is operated and regulated under international banking license, which usually prohibits the bank from establishing any business activities in the jurisdiction of establishment. Due to less regulation and transparency, accounts with offshore banks were often used to hide undeclared income. Since the 1980s, jurisdictions that provide financial services to nonresidents on a big scale can be referred to as offshore financial centres. OFCs often also levy little or no corporation tax and/or personal income and high direct taxes such as duty, making the cost of living high.
A country's gross government debt is the financial liabilities of the government sector. Changes in government debt over time reflect primarily borrowing due to past government deficits. A deficit occurs when a government's expenditures exceed revenues. Government debt may be owed to domestic residents, as well as to foreign residents. If owed to foreign residents, that quantity is included in the country's external debt.
The socialist market economy (SME) is the economic system and model of economic development employed in the People's Republic of China. The system is a market economy with the predominance of public ownership and state-owned enterprises. The term "socialist market economy" was introduced by Jiang Zemin during the 14th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in 1992 to describe the goal of China's economic reforms.
Mahmoud Mohieldin, is an economist with more than 30 years of experience in international finance and development. He is the UN Climate Change High-Level Champion for Egypt. He is an Executive Director at the International Monetary Fund. He has been the United Nations Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda since February 2020. He was the Minister of Investment of Egypt from 2004-2010, and most recently, served as the World Bank Group Senior Vice President for the 2030 Development Agenda, United Nations Relations and Partnerships. His roles at the World Bank also included Managing Director, responsible for Human Development, Sustainable Development, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management, Finance and Private Sector Development, and the World Bank Institute; World Bank President's Special Envoy on the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the Post-2015 Development Agenda, and Financing for Development; and Corporate Secretary and Executive Secretary to the Development Committee of the World Bank Group's Board of Governors. Dr Mohieldin also served on several Boards of Directors in the Central Bank of Egypt and the corporate sector. He was a member of the Commission on Growth and Development and was selected for the Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum in 2005. His professional experience extends into the academic arena as a Professor of Economics and Finance at the Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University and as a visiting professor at several renowned Universities in Egypt, Korea, the UAE, the UK and the USA. He is a member of the International Advisory Board of Durham University Business School. He also holds leading positions in national, regional and international research centres and associations. He has authored numerous publications and articles in leading journals in the fields of economics, finance and development.
Taxes provide the most important revenue source for the Government of the People's Republic of China. Value-added tax (VAT) produces the largest share of tax revenue in China and corporate income tax producing the next largest share.
The Association of German Public Banks is a leading association within the German banking sector, bringing together most of the German public banking sector except the local-level savings banks. Its membership includes 63 banks, including the Landesbanks that are also members of the Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband (DSGV) and form part of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, and promotional and development banks owned by the Federal Republic of Germany or the individual German federal states.
Banking in Germany is a highly leveraged industry, as its average leverage ratio as of 11 October 2008 is 52 to 1 ; its short-term liabilities are equal to 60% of the German GDP or 167% of its national debt.
In German-speaking jurisdictions, Landesbank, lit. 'bank of the Land', refers to a category of public sector banks that are owned by one or more of the Länder. Institutions of this type exist in most German states, as well as Austria and Switzerland.
The Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband is the association of German savings banks and the apex entity of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, the European Union's second-largest financial services group with 2.4 trillion euros combined assets as of end-2021. Germany's savings banks, owned by local governments, play a major role in the country's economy, together operating some 15,860 branches and employing about 284,800 people.
DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale is the central provider of asset management and capital market solutions of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, a network of public banks that together form the largest financial services group in Germany and in all of Europe. It is registered in both Frankfurt and Berlin, with main operational headquarters in Frankfurt. It traces its origins to the Deutsche Girozentrale, established in 1918 as a hub for payments within the German savings banks system.
An offshore financial centre (OFC) is defined as a "country or jurisdiction that provides financial services to nonresidents on a scale that is incommensurate with the size and the financing of its domestic economy."
Bank Respublika is a private commercial bank established on May 22, 1992 based on a license issued by the National Bank of Azerbaijan Republic. As of June 1, 2011, the bank's total capital exceeded 53.7 million Azerbaijani manat (₼) and total assets reached ₼294.2 million.
A public bank is a bank, a financial institution, in which a state, municipality, or public actors are the owners. It is an enterprise under government control. Prominent among current public banking models are the Bank of North Dakota, the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe in Germany, and many nations' postal bank systems.
The OECD G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Project is an OECD/G20 project to set up an international framework to combat tax avoidance by multinational enterprises ("MNEs") using base erosion and profit shifting tools. The project, led by the OECD's Committee on Fiscal Affairs, began in 2013 with OECD and G20 countries, in a context of financial crisis and tax affairs. Currently, after the BEPS report has been delivered in 2015, the project is now in its implementation phase, 116 countries are involved including a majority of developing countries. During two years, the package was developed by participating members on an equal footing, as well as widespread consultations with jurisdictions and stakeholders, including business, academics and civil society. And since 2016, the OECD/G20 Inclusive Framework on BEPS provides for its 140 members a platform to work on an equal footing to tackle BEPS, including through peer review of the BEPS minimum standards, and monitoring of implementation of the BEPS package as a whole.
Russian government ownership of various companies and organizations, collectively known as state-owned enterprises (SOEs), still play an important role in the national economy. The approximately 4,100 enterprises that have some degree of state ownership accounted for 39% of all employment in 2007. In 2007, SOEs controlled 64% of the banking sector, 47% of the oil and gas sector, and 37% of the utility sector.
In South Africa the Department of Public Enterprises is the shareholder representative of the South African Government with oversight responsibility for state-owned enterprises in key sectors. Some companies are not directly controlled by the Department of Public Enterprises, but by various other departments. Further, not all state owned entities are registered as companies.
The Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe is a network of public banks that together form the largest financial services group in Germany and in all of Europe. Its name refers to local government-controlled savings banks that are known in German as Sparkasse, plural Sparkassen. Its activity is overwhelmingly located in Germany.
The Sparkassengruppe Österreich brings together all savings banks in Austria. Tracing its origins to 1819, it serves around 4 million customers in 797 branches with more than 15,500 employees, with a customer share in Austria around 31.2% as of December 2022. The group has a complex decentralized structure but relies critically on Erste Group Bank AG, which owns the main local savings bank in Vienna, operates central functions, owns and manages subsidiaries outside of Austria, and consolidates group accounts. The Österreichischer Sparkassenverband acts as the group's national representative body.