Statutory incidence and sales tax compliance: Evidence from Wayfair

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Fox, William F.; Hargaden, Enda Patrick; Luna, LeAnn
• 署名单位: Ollscoil na Gaillimhe-University of Galway; University of Tennessee System; University of Tennessee Knoxville
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2022.104716
• 发表日期: 2022
• 关键词: Sales tax; Compliance; state and local public finance; Statutory incidence

摘要

This paper studies the compliance, pricing, and progressivity effects of changing statutory incidence. The Wayfair Supreme Court decision granted U.S. states new authority to shift the statutory incidence of tax-ation from consumers to online and out-of-state retailers, forcing supply-side remittance of the sales tax. With state-level data, we find this increased sales tax revenues by 7.9 percent, concentrated in states with stringent compliance standards. With barcode-level scanner data, we find evidence of full pass -through of the tax to consumers. Effects are progressive however, with the reforms increasing tax liabil-ities principally for higher-income households.(c) 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.