Degressiven

Degressiven is the adjective form used to describe patterns, methods, or effects that decrease in magnitude as the input or basis increases. In general usage, something degressive shows a concave relationship, where incremental changes become smaller over time or with higher values. The term is used across fields such as economics, accounting, and mathematics, and it can also appear in everyday language to indicate a diminishing intensity or impact.

In economics and accounting, degressive methods claim higher impact early on with a diminishing effect later. A well-known example is degressive Abschreibung (degressive depreciation) in tax accounting, where a larger deduction is allowed in the first years of an asset’s life and the rate then diminishes in later years. Such methods are designed to accelerate tax relief or reflect perceived higher early wear, but they have been subject to reform and vary by jurisdiction.

In taxation more broadly, degressive rate structures can describe schemes where the tax rate increases more slowly than the base as the base grows, which is often considered regressive in practice because it places a larger burden on lower-income levels relative to higher ones. The term highlights the non-linear, diminishing nature of the effect.

In mathematics and modeling, degressive behavior describes functions with decreasing marginal effects: the slope or marginal contribution declines as the independent variable increases. This concept is used to model phenomena with diminishing returns, saturation effects, or utility curves that flatten at higher levels.

Overall, degressiven denotes a non-linear, decelerating pattern common in theory and applied fields, reflecting how influence or cost changes taper off with scale.