Measuring Top Incomes Using Tax Record Data: A Cautionary Tale from Australia / Richard V. Burkhauser, Markus H. Hahn, Roger Wilkins.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Burkhauser, Richard V.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Hahn, Markus H.

Wilkins, Roger.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w19121.

NBER working paper series no. w19121

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2013.

Summary:

Atkinson, Piketty, and Saez (2011) survey an important new literature using income tax-based data to measure the share of income held by top income groups. But changes in tax legislation that expand the tax base to include income sources (e.g. capital gains, dividends, etc.) disproportionately held by these groups will conflate such an expansion with an increase in the share of income they hold. We provide a cautionary tale from Australia of how comprehensive tax reform legislation in 1985 substantially altered Australian top income series, especially those that do not separate taxable realized capital gains from other taxable income.

Notes:

Print version record

June 2013.