Tax Evasion and Inequality

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Alstadsaeter, Annette; Johannesen, Niels; Zucman, Gabriel
• 署名单位: Norwegian University of Life Sciences; University of Copenhagen; University of Copenhagen; University of California System; University of California Berkeley; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20172043
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 2073-2103
• 关键词: income-tax; Top incomes; WEALTH; noncompliance; sweden

摘要

Drawing on a unique dataset of leaked customer lists from offshore financial institutions matched to administrative wealth records in Scandinavia, we show that offshore tax evasion is highly concentrated among the rich. The skewed distribution of offshore wealth implies high rates of tax evasion at the top: we find that the 0.01 percent richest households evade about 25 percent of their taxes. By contrast, tax evasion detected in stratified random tax audits is less than 5 percent throughout the distribution. Top wealth shares increase substantially when accounting for unreported assets, highlighting the importance of factoring in tax evasion to properly measure inequality. (JEL D31, H24, H26, K34)