The effect of tax-based savings incentives on the self-employed

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Power, L; Rider, M
• 署名单位: United States Department of the Treasury; University System of Georgia; Kennesaw State University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/S0047-2727(01)00092-5
• 发表日期: 2002
• 页码: 33-52
• 关键词: Taxes; fringe benefits; tax-based savings incentives; self-employed

摘要

The U.S. individual income tax allows employers to make tax-deferred contributions to qualified pension plans for their employees and, in the case of the self-employed, on their own-behalf. We examine the effect of these tax-based savings incentives on the self-employed. For this purpose we use a panel of sole proprietors constructed from the Statistics of Income (Sol) individual income tax files for 1985, 1989 and 1993. We find that taxes have a substantial effect on both the dichotomous decision to contribute and the amount contributed to tax-deferred retirement savings plan by the self-employed. In general, our estimates suggest a tax price elasticity of contributions around -2.0. This finding is surprisingly robust to a number of alternative specifications. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.