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Dividend Taxes and Income Shifting

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  • Annette Alstadsæter
  • Martin Jacob

Abstract

This paper analyzes whether a dividend tax cut for owner-managers of closely held corporations encourages income shifting, income generation, or both. We use rich, micro data from Sweden for the period 2000 - 2011 comprising the entire Swedish population, as well as firmand individual-level data for all owner-managers in closely held corporations, partnerships, and self-employed. We find robust evidence of extensive income shifting across tax bases in response to the 2006 dividend tax cut. Relative to owners of unincorporated businesses, owner-managers of closely held corporations do not increase total income. Instead, they relabel earned income as dividend income. The income shifting effect is stronger for owner-managers with tax incentives and with easier access to income shifting through a high ownership share.
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  • Annette Alstadsæter & Martin Jacob, 2016. "Dividend Taxes and Income Shifting," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 118(4), pages 693-717, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:scandj:v:118:y:2016:i:4:p:693-717
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/sjoe.2016.118.issue-4
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    Cited by:

    1. Annette Alstadsæter & Martin Jacob, 2018. "Tax Incentives and Noncompliance," Public Finance Review, , vol. 46(4), pages 609-634, July.
    2. Holmberg, Johan, 2021. "Entrepreneurial Taxation with Endogenous Firm Entry and Unemployment," Umeå Economic Studies 994, Umeå University, Department of Economics.
    3. Håkan Selin & Laurent Simula, 2017. "Income Shifting as Income Creation? The Intensive vs. the Extensive Shifting Margins," CESifo Working Paper Series 6510, CESifo.
    4. Alstadsæter, Annette & Jacob, Martin & Michaely, Roni, 2017. "Do dividend taxes affect corporate investment?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 74-83.
    5. Leon Bettendorf & Arjan Lejour & Maarten ’t Riet, 2017. "Tax Bunching by Owners of Small Corporations," De Economist, Springer, vol. 165(4), pages 411-438, December.
    6. Hakan Selin & Laurent Simula, 2017. "Income Creation and/or Income Shifting? The Intensive vs. the Extensive Shifting Margins," Post-Print halshs-01666994, HAL.
    7. Björklund, Anders & Waldenström, Daniel, 2021. "Facts and Myths in the Popular Debate about Inequality in Sweden," Working Paper Series 1392, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    8. Laurent Bach & Antoine Bozio & Brice Fabre & Arthur Guillouzouic & Claire Leroy & Clément Malgouyres, 2019. "Follow the money! Combining household and firm-level evidence to unravel the tax elasticity of dividend," Institut des Politiques Publiques halshs-02415470, HAL.
    9. Spencer Bastani & Daniel Waldenström, 2020. "How Should Capital Be Taxed?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 812-846, September.
    10. Lee, Sang-Yeob & Hong, Woo-Hyung, 2020. "Does tax really matter for corporate payout policy: Evidence from a policy experiment in South Korea," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    11. Lina Aldén & Spencer Bastani & Mats Hammarstedt & Chizheng Miao, 2022. "Immigrant-native differences in long-term self-employment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 58(3), pages 1661-1697, March.
    12. Bastani, Spencer & Waldenström, Daniel, 2018. "How Should Capital Be Taxed? Theory and Evidence from Sweden," IZA Discussion Papers 11475, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    13. Advani, Arun, 2021. "Missing Incomes in the UK : Evidence and Policy Implications," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 1364, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    14. Spencer Bastani & Daniel Waldenström, 2018. "How should capital be taxed? The Swedish experience," Working Papers hal-02878153, HAL.
    15. Aldén, Lina & Bastani, Spencer & Hammarstedt, Mats & Miao, Chizheng, 2020. "Ethnic Differences in Long-Term Self-Employment," Working Paper Series 1361, Research Institute of Industrial Economics.
    16. Carlos Díaz-Caro & Jorge Onrubia, 2019. "How Did the ‘Dualization’ of the Spanish Income Tax Affect Horizontal Equity? Assessing its Impact Using Copula Functions," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 231(4), pages 81-124, December.
    17. Lee, Seung Chul & Park, S. Saeyeul, 2023. "Dividend taxes and corporate choice: Evidence from 2015 tax cut in South Korea," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    18. Miao, Dingquan & Selin, Håkan & Söderström, Martin, 2022. "Earnings responses to even higher taxes," Working Paper Series 2022:12, IFAU - Institute for Evaluation of Labour Market and Education Policy.
    19. Annette Alstadsæter & Martin Jacob, 2017. "Who participates in tax avoidance? Evidence from Swedish microdata," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 49(28), pages 2779-2796, June.
    20. Jacob, Martin, 2014. "Cross-base tax elasticity of capital gains," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 169, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    21. Bräutigam, Rainer & Spengel, Christoph & Stutzenberger, Kathrin, 2017. "The development of corporate tax structures in the European Union from 1998 to 2015 - Qualitative and quantitative analysis," ZEW Discussion Papers 17-034, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    22. Halvarsson, Daniel & Korpi, Martin & Wennberg, Karl, 2018. "Entrepreneurship and income inequality," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 275-293.
    23. Tazhitdinova, Alisa, 2020. "Are changes of organizational form costly? Income shifting and business entry responses to taxes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).

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    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • H3 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents

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