Taxation and the Superrich / Florian Scheuer, Joel Slemrod.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Scheuer, Florian.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Slemrod, Joel.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w26207.

NBER working paper series no. w26207

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2019.

Summary:

This paper addresses the modern optimal tax progressivity literature, which clarifies the key role of the behavioral response to taxation and accounts for the incomes of the superrich being qualitatively different than others. Some may be "superstars," for whom small differences in talent are magnified into much larger earnings differences, while others may work in winner-take-all markets, such that their effort to climb the ladder of success reduces the returns to others. We stress that pivotal tax-rate elasticities are not structural parameters, and will be smaller the broader and less plastic is the tax base and the more effective is the enforcement of tax evasion. For this reason, normative analysis of tax rates should be accompanied by attention to the tax base, with special attention to capital gains, which comprise a large fraction of the taxable income of the superrich.

Notes:

Print version record

August 2019.