Fair, social and innovative.
All taxes and levies are spread fairly across labour, capital and automation – at most one third on any income. Work pays, and the strong social net and the transformation dividend secure social peace. Municipalities and regions decide more independently, and a European roof protects common interests by majority vote.
All calculation models are open to review.
* In Germany, Italy, Spain and Poland, calculated under the project's rules (2028, today's purchasing power, after mandatory savings of 10% and the legacy surcharge, today including minimum income support). In France, according to the model, 7 to 10 in 10, because the prime d'activité is lost for single low earners.
Today's system:
Today's system has grown layer by layer. It burdens labour more heavily than anything else and leaves citizens, municipalities and regions frustrated.
In Belgium; Germany 47.9%, France 47.2%, Italy 47.1%, Spain 40.6%. The OECD average is 34.9%.
Flat taxes on capital income in Europe's large states: Poland 19%, Italy 26%, Germany 26.4%, Spain up to 30%, France 31.4%. A euro from capital contributes far less than a euro from work.
Municipality, inter-municipal body, county or province, region, state and EU. Money and tasks are passed back and forth, goals are missed.
Social contributions fall on human work only. Whoever replaces work with machines saves contributions.
Sources: OECD, Taxing Wages 2025 (single person, average wage, 2024); national capital income tax rates 2026.
The concept:
Every building block has already been tried somewhere in the world. The Golden Third joins them into a system that can be explained on a single page.
Gross income is taxed – no deductions, no income splitting. Basic needs stay tax-free; above that, work pays at every step. The brackets lie at one, one and a half, two and three times basic needs and grow with them.
Work is no longer taxed twice. Employers pass at least 80% of the employer contributions they save into wages. These are the contributions that disappear – for health, long-term care, pensions, unemployment and family; accident insurance and levies for training, housing and transport stay with the employer. A law requires all employment contracts to be adjusted accordingly by the date of introduction. Independent monitoring of gross wages by sector accompanies the first years; any employer who fails to adjust pays the difference into the legacy fund. Denmark already levies hardly any social contributions today.
Capital gains count too. Turning wages into capital income no longer pays.
No exemptions. Whoever inherits a business or a house can defer the tax – nobody has to sell to pay it.
Only the value of the plot counts, not the building. Whoever builds or renovates no longer pays for it. It may not be passed on to tenants.
Wealth up to €2 million is untouched. Above it, a minimum tax applies that can be credited against income tax.
This explicitly includes digital platforms. Profits can be shifted, customers cannot.
As with the energy label, you see at a glance what a product costs and why. Goods are rated by their resource and carbon footprint, not by origin. 33% applies only to harmful goods. Suppliers reach a lower rate through certification by approved, state-supervised bodies – a competition for sustainability.
Those who consume little gain. Switzerland has been returning its CO₂ levy to everyone in equal shares for years.
Adults in full, children 80%, without applying. It gives everyone a share of what the transformation brings in: steering taxes and the gains of digitalisation.
Knotted from many knots – everyone holds, nobody falls through: health, care, a minimum pension, basic needs in case of disability and unemployment. Anyone who earns little is topped up to basic needs; every euro you earn yourself counts only by half. Beyond that is your own route with your own provision (10% of wages into your own pension account, locked until retirement age; a few investment options and a default fund for anyone who does not choose). Basic livelihood (Germany): €1,029 a month for a single person, €2,675 for a couple with two children; the net as a whole costs 9.6% of GDP (2028, today's purchasing power).
How much more a household keeps in its pocket under the Golden Third than today – after taxes and social contributions, with the employer share in the wage. Choose the country for the comparison.
Today: simplified national tax and contribution models under 2026 law for Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Poland (checked against OECD Taxing Wages). Golden Third: 80% of saved employer contributions in the wage, rates at the country's basic needs applied to wage and dividend, no social contributions, mandatory savings of 10% of wages deducted, new VAT (label) on consumption and the legacy surcharge of the country's own fund (Germany: common fund) included. Further adults without own income; today including German basic income support, French APL and Spanish CAPI; other minimum income schemes and housing benefits not modelled. Euros at today's purchasing power (Poland converted at 4.24 zł per euro). Project estimate. Version 4.8: child dividend 80% of the adult amount; top-up to the basic livelihood (basic needs, further adults 0.5, children 0.55) with own income counted by half; hardship (rent, special needs) not modelled.
The number of administrative levels is reduced. Municipalities and regions receive their share directly from the roof, decide on their own finances and delegate tasks to higher-level administrative associations (e.g. infrastructure partnerships). The European roof takes on only what municipalities and regions cannot do alone – and may not take more than the treaty allows.
What we produce today rests on what generations before us built: knowledge, technology, infrastructure. More and more of it is done by machines and software. The dividend gives everyone the same share back – from what the transformation brings in: the carbon price and the special rate on harmful goods, plus the taxation of digital platforms where their customers are. Its level follows from each country's economic output and tasks. It shrinks as combustion engines and emissions disappear – that is intended. What carries the load is the strong net.
And it offsets what the transformation of work, energy and the economy asks of each of us: whoever has to change course does not stand empty-handed.
to manage their own money: at most one third in tax, no contributions, their own provision in their own account. A dividend every month, without applying.
to run their own affairs: they receive fixed amounts per resident and per child, under the same rule in every country. They pay out the top-up and hardship support locally, on application; anyone whose tax and wage data suggest an entitlement receives a pre-filled application. The country sets the amounts and how income is counted. They decide on membership in districts and associations and on local support programmes.
what can only be done together: defence and digital sovereignty, a single market without borders, common standards. Nothing more. The roof decides by a majority of the delegates of the associations of municipalities and regions.
Distribution by the roof comes down to two numbers: €3,122 per inhabitant and €10,954 per child per year (average of the 30 states; every country applies the same rule to its economic output). More children therefore means more money for schools. Whatever municipalities and regions actively save on administration ends up with their citizens.
On average, 15.7% of municipal and regional budgets goes to administration. Their tasks differ from country to country, so a direct comparison of shares only goes so far.
The Golden Third combines security with freedom: nobody falls below basic needs, and whoever starts something new – a job, training, a business – does not lose their footing.
For every child aged 5 to 19, municipalities and regions receive €10,954 each year – more children, more money. They fund schools, childcare and support locally. Children receive care, upbringing and education as services of municipalities and regions; the child dividend and the basic livelihood cover material needs.
No social contributions on wages, at most one third tax on every euro. Anyone who earns little is topped up to basic needs; only half of your own earnings is counted. The dividend continues – during further training too, or when changing jobs.
Basic research and universities are among the common tasks of the roof (0.77 and 0.74% of GDP in the overall calculation). Labour, capital and automation are treated alike: whoever develops, hires or founds pays at most one third on every additional euro.
Culture, sport and community stay with the municipalities and regions (1.22% of GDP in the overall calculation). They decide for themselves what to spend their money on – including what they save in administration.
The net holds without holding you back. The dividend comes without applying and does not stop when someone takes up work. The top-up to basic needs falls by only half of what you earn yourself. High rents, special needs and emergencies are handled locally by municipalities and regions – under the country's rules, in one place.
Project model calculation, 2028, today's purchasing power. Today including German basic income support, French housing aid (APL) and the Spanish child supplement (CAPI); other means-tested benefits not modelled. Where, according to the model, there is no comparable minimum income today (Italy, Spain, Poland), the basic livelihood raises incomes considerably; in return an additional euro earned is credited more strongly there than today. In France the basic livelihood does not fully replace the prime d'activité. Gini: official value 2025 (Eurostat) plus model change.
The Gini coefficient measures the inequality of disposable incomes (0 = everyone equal, 100 = one person has everything). According to the model it falls in all five countries – dividend and basic livelihood lift the lower incomes. In France it falls only slightly: employer contributions for health and family insurance have no ceiling there, so passing them into wages also lifts high wages; the uniform cap (pass-through up to six times basic needs) limits this effect.
Static project model: today's income distribution (EU-SILC 2025), no behavioural change, excluding capital income and wealth. Shown is the official value plus the model change (middle of a band of at most ±0.2 points). If pensioner households stay unchanged, the decline is 1 to 2 points smaller. France 2028: if households are mapped as families instead of single persons, 24.4 instead of 29.0.
Above all, the dividend returns what was previously paid in taxes on harmful products and behaviour. As harmful emissions disappear, this part shrinks; health and care cost more as the population ages. Growth works the other way. On average across the 30 states the dividend falls from €254 (2028) to €144 (2060). More work and automation raise it again.
A common roof is only as good as its limits. Five rules are written into the treaty.
The roof keeps at most 32% of what it collects for the municipalities and regions – and only what its tasks really cost.
Every euro above need goes to the municipalities and regions, into the strong net and the transformation dividend.
Municipalities and regions receive fixed amounts per resident and per child. Nobody has to ask, nobody can cut.
Each state settles its own old debts and pension promises. The roof offers tools: a common fund with a common interest rate, repayment by 2098 at the latest – and an orderly restart procedure for over-indebted states. Existing pensions continue. Unfunded promises (statutory pensions, civil-service pensions) are reduced from the start date by 15% on the part above basic needs, whenever the pension began; own savings are not reduced, and pensioners' health and long-term care contributions disappear. No pensioner household falls below today's minimum income in old age. If all 30 states put their debts and pension promises into a common fund, everything is repaid by 2098 – with a surcharge of 15.5% on all taxes, calculated at 2.45% interest (average of the past 20 years). At the market rates of October 2026 (3.5 to 4%) it would be 18.7%–20.4%.
The EU has recently lost its ability to act. An alliance in which individual members can block decisions with a veto cannot decide for everyone when the moment of decision comes. Hence a switch to majority voting – for the ability to act and to compete.
Many building blocks already exist somewhere today – often for decades.
The tax return is done online in a few minutes. Property tax is based on land value alone; buildings are not taxed.
Municipalities run schools, care and social services. Social contributions play hardly any role – the welfare state is paid for by taxes.
Revenue from the CO₂ levy is returned to all residents in equal shares, credited against health insurance premiums. Municipalities set their own taxes.
Every resident receives a share of the common fund once a year, without a means test. For more than forty years.
Employers must pay into each employee's own retirement account (superannuation); the money belongs to the account, not the state. Since July 2025 it is 12% of wages.
Of the 18.5% pension contribution, 2.5 points go into the premium pension in an individual account. Everyone chooses their own funds; those who do not choose are in the state default fund.
The roof is not a closed circle but an offer. The blueprint is calculated for 30 European states (EU, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland) with 465.6 million people – partners beyond are possible too. Choose for yourself: once it reaches the population of the United States, the new alliance plays in the same league.
Not bound by the unanimity of the EU treaties: for the United Kingdom, the club would be an accession, not a breach of treaty – and a way back into a common economic area. With 69.1 million people, the second-largest partner.
Closely tied to Europe economically through the CETA trade agreement, and since 2025 through a security and defence partnership with the EU. 41.7 million people, shared values, common tasks.
Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain and Poland together reach the size of the United States. Every further country enlarges the club.
The rules are not tied to Europe. They fit wherever the values match: rule of law, democracy, a social market economy and self-government of municipalities and regions. Given the current data and model, this has not yet been worked out further.
The Golden Third is developed independently of parties and interest groups. Our figures come from official statistics, every calculation can be checked, every error is corrected in the open. Experts in public finance, administration, municipal practice, law and statistics are invited to contribute their knowledge.