scholarly journals The Elasticity of Taxable Income with Respect to Marginal Tax Rates: A Critical Review

2012 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Saez ◽  
Joel Slemrod ◽  
Seth H Giertz
Keyword(s):  
The United States ◽  
Critical Discussion ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Empirical Estimation ◽  
Sufficient Statistic ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Taxable Income ◽  
Elasticity Of Taxable Income ◽  
Marginal Tax Rates

This paper critically surveys the large and growing literature estimating the elasticity of taxable income with respect to marginal tax rates using tax return data. First, we provide a theoretical framework showing under what assumptions this elasticity can be used as a sufficient statistic for efficiency and optimal tax analysis. We discuss what other parameters should be estimated when the elasticity is not a sufficient statistic. Second, we discuss conceptually the key issues that arise in the empirical estimation of the elasticity of taxable income using the example of the 1993 top individual income tax rate increase in the United States to illustrate those issues. Third, we provide a critical discussion of selected empirical analyses of the elasticity of taxable income in light of the theoretical and empirical framework we laid out. Finally, we discuss avenues for future research. (JEL H24, H31, J22)

scholarly journals The elasticity of taxable income in Spain: 1999–2014

SERIEs ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 281-320 ◽  
Author(s):  
Miguel Almunia ◽  
David Lopez-Rodriguez
Keyword(s):  
Estimation Methods ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Personal Income Tax ◽  
Capital Income ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Taxable Income ◽  
Elasticity Of Taxable Income ◽  
Marginal Tax Rates ◽  
Tax Deductions ◽  
The One

Abstract We study how taxable income responds to changes in marginal tax rates, using as a main source of identifying variation three large reforms to the Spanish personal income tax implemented in the period 1999–2014. The most reliable estimates of the elasticity of taxable income (ETI) with respect to the net-of-tax rate for this period are between 0.45 and 0.64. The ETI is about three times larger for self-employed taxpayers than for employees and larger for business income than for labor and capital income. The elasticity of broad income is smaller, between 0.10 and 0.24, while the elasticity of some tax deductions such as the one for private pension contributions exceeds one. Our estimates are similar across a variety of estimation methods and sample restrictions and also robust to potential biases created by mean reversion and heterogeneous income trends.

Measuring Revenue-maximizing Elasticities of Taxable Income

2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Creedy ◽  
Norman Gemmell
Keyword(s):  
Income Tax ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Marginal Rate ◽  
Tax System ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Taxable Income ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
Marginal Tax Rates ◽  
The Right

This article considers the question of whether marginal tax rates (MTRs) in the US income tax system are on the “right” side of their respective Laffer curves. Previous attention has tended to focus specifically on the top MTR. Conceptual expressions for these “revenue-maximizing elasticities of taxable income” (ETI L), based on readily observable tax parameters, are presented for each tax rate in a multi-rate income tax system. Applying these to the US income tax, with its complex effective marginal rate structure, demonstrates that a wide range of revenue-maximizing ETI values can be expected within, and across, tax brackets and for all taxpayers in aggregate. For some significant groups of taxpayers, these revenue-maximizing ETIs appear to be within the range of empirically estimated elasticities.

The Impact of the Source of Changes in Marginal Tax Rates on Participation in Individual Retirement Accounts

2002 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
David H. Eaton
Keyword(s):  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Tax Reform ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Taxable Income ◽  
Individual Retirement Accounts ◽  
Retirement Accounts ◽  
Marginal Tax Rates ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Participation Decisions

This paper uses a series of two-year panels of tax return data to estimate the effects of two sources of tax rate changes on the participation in Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs). This paper uses a panel logit approach to control for individual specific fixed effects, which may also influence IRA participation behavior. This paper examines participation during the years of open eligibility for IRAs, as well as examining the impact of the 1986 tax reform on participation. A key finding of this paper is that taxpayers' IRA participation decisions are more sensitive to changes in tax rates due to changes in taxable income than to direct changes in the tax tables.

scholarly journals Tax Reforms and Intertemporal Shifting of Wage Income: Evidence from Danish Monthly Payroll Records

2016 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 233-257 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claus Thustrup Kreiner ◽  
Søren Leth-Petersen ◽  
Peer Ebbesen Skov
Keyword(s):  
Tax Reform ◽  
Liquidity Constraints ◽  
Labor Income ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Tax Reforms ◽  
Taxable Income ◽  
Elasticity Of Taxable Income ◽  
Marginal Tax Rates ◽  
Willingness To Cooperate ◽  
Wage Income

This paper uses monthly payroll records for all Danish employees to identify widespread intertemporal shifting of labor income in response to a tax reform that significantly reduced the marginal tax rates for one-fourth of all employees. When ignoring shifting, the estimate of the overall elasticity of taxable income equals 0.1, and the elasticity is increasing with earnings. When removing the shifting component, the elasticity is close to zero at all earnings levels. The evidence also indicates that tax salience, liquidity constraints and firm willingness to cooperate in shifting are important factors in explaining shifting behavior. (JEL H24, H31, J22, J31)

scholarly journals Efficient Child Care Subsidies

2020 ◽  
Vol 110 (1) ◽  
pp. 162-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christine Ho ◽  
Nicola Pavoni
Keyword(s):  
Child Care ◽  
Low Income ◽  
The United States ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Child Care Subsidies ◽  
Optimal Program ◽  
The Us ◽  
Marginal Tax Rates ◽  
Welfare Problem ◽  
Care Costs

We study the design of child care subsidies in an optimal welfare problem with heterogeneous private market productivities. The optimal subsidy schedule is qualitatively similar to the existing US scheme. Efficiency mandates a subsidy on formal child care costs, with higher subsidies paid to lower income earners and a kink as a function of child care expenditure. Marginal labor income tax rates are set lower than the labor wedges, with the potential to generate negative marginal tax rates. We calibrate our simple model to features of the US labor market and focus on single mothers with children aged below 6. The optimal program provides stronger participation but milder intensive margin incentives for low-income earners with subsidy rates starting very high and decreasing with income more steeply than those in the United States. (JEL D82, H21, H24, J13, J16, J32)

scholarly journals Marginal Tax Rates and Income Inequality in a Life-Cycle Model

1999 ◽  
Vol 89 (5) ◽  
pp. 1197-1215 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Altig ◽  
Charles T Carlstrom
Keyword(s):  
Life Cycle ◽  
Income Inequality ◽  
Computable General Equilibrium ◽  
Tax Rates ◽  
Cycle Model ◽  
Marginal Tax Rate ◽  
Tax Rate ◽  
Marginal Tax Rates ◽  
Quantitative Impact ◽  
Distribution Of Income

In this paper we study the quantitative impact of marginal tax rates on the distribution of income. Our methodology builds on computable general-equilibrium framework. We find that distortions from marginal tax rate changes of the sort implied by the Tax Reform Act of 1986 have sizable effects on income inequality in a reasonably quantified life-cycle setting: In our model rate changes alone capture half the increase in the pretax Gini that actually occurred between 1984 and 1989. (JEL C68, D31, H30, H20)

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