Alleged tax competition: The mysterious death of bequest taxes in Switzerland

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Bruelhart, Marius; Parchet, Raphael
• 署名单位: University of Lausanne; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; Universita della Svizzera Italiana
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2013.12.009
• 发表日期: 2014
• 页码: 63-78
• 关键词: Tax competition; Bequest taxation; Fiscal federalism

摘要

Interjurisdictional competition over mobile tax bases is an easily understood mechanism, but actual tax-base elasticities are difficult to estimate. Political pressure for reducing tax rates could therefore be based on erroneous estimates of the mobility of tax bases. We show that tax competition provided the most prominent argument in the policy debates leading to a succession of reforms of bequest taxation by Swiss cantons. Yet, canton-level panel data spanning multiple bequest tax reforms over a 36-year period suggest the relevant tax base, high-income retirees, to be relatively inelastic with respect to tax rates. The alleged pressures of tax competition did not seem in reality to exist. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.