Dying to Save Taxes: Evidence from Estate Tax Returns on the Death Elasticity / Wojciech Kopczuk, Joel Slemrod.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kopczuk, Wojciech.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Slemrod, Joel.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w8158.

NBER working paper series no. w8158

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Other Title:

Dying to Save Taxes

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2001.

Summary:

This paper examines data from U.S. federal tax returns to shed light on whether the timing of death is responsive to its tax consequences. We investigate the temporal pattern of deaths around the time of changes in the estate tax system periods when living longer, or dying sooner, could significantly affect estate tax liability. We find some evidence that there is a small death elasticity, although we cannot rule out that what we have uncovered is ex post doctoring of the reported date of death. However, the fact that we find that postponement, rather than acceleration, of death is more likely to occur suggests that this phenomenon is at last partly a real (albeit timing) response to taxation.

Notes:

Print version record

March 2001.