Behavioral Responses to Wealth Taxes: Evidence from Switzerland

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Brulhart, Marius; Gruber, Jonathan; Krapf, Matthias; Schmidheiny, Kurt
• 署名单位: University of Lausanne; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT); National Bureau of Economic Research; University of Basel; Leibniz Association; Ifo Institut
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20200258
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 111-150
• 关键词: taxable income; taxation; elasticity

摘要

We study how declared wealth responds to changes in wealth tax rates. Exploiting rich intranational variation in Switzerland, we find a 1 percentage point drop in a canton's wealth tax rate raises reported taxable wealth by at least 43 percent after 6 years. Administrative tax records of two cantons with quasi-randomly assigned differential tax reforms suggest that 24 percent of the effect arises from taxpayer mobility and 21 percent from a concurrent rise in housing prices. Savings responses appear unable to explain more than a small frac-tion of the remainder, suggesting sizable evasion responses in this setting with no third-party reporting of financial wealth. (JEL D91, H24, H26, H31)