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Jointly Optimal Taxes for Different Types of Income

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  • Johannes Hermle
  • Andreas Peichl

Abstract

We develop and estimate a model of jointly optimal income taxes for different types of income. Compared to standard optimal tax formulas, optimal schedular income tax rates additionally depend on cross-elasticities between tax bases capturing fiscal externalities. We discuss two applications: the taxation of different income sources such as labor or capital income and the taxation of couples. For these applications, we calculate income type-specific optimal tax rates for Germany using rich panel data from administrative tax records. We first estimate income-type specific elasticities with respect to the next-of-tax rate and show that responses to taxes differ substantially by income source and by gender. Second, we calculate social welfare weights implicit in the German personal income tax schedule which again differ between income sources and by gender. Using these estimates, we consider a tax simplification reform by calculating optimal schedular linear income tax rates. We find that optimal tax rates are significantly lower for labor income than for self-employment and capital income as well as for married women than men.

Suggested Citation

  • Johannes Hermle & Andreas Peichl, 2018. "Jointly Optimal Taxes for Different Types of Income," CESifo Working Paper Series 7248, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_7248
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    Cited by:

    1. Jacquet, Laurence & Lehmann, Etienne, 2021. "How to Tax Different Incomes?," IZA Discussion Papers 14739, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    2. Håkan Selin & Laurent Simula, 2017. "Income Shifting as Income Creation? The Intensive vs. the Extensive Shifting Margins," CESifo Working Paper Series 6510, CESifo.
    3. Hakan Selin & Laurent Simula, 2017. "Income Creation and/or Income Shifting? The Intensive vs. the Extensive Shifting Margins," Post-Print halshs-01666994, HAL.
    4. Carina Neisser, 2021. "The Elasticity of Taxable Income: A Meta-Regression Analysis [The top 1% in international and historical perspective]," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(640), pages 3365-3391.
    5. Michaël Sicsic, 2022. "Does labour income react more to income tax or means‐tested benefits reforms?," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(3), pages 291-319, September.
    6. Spencer Bastani & Daniel Waldenström, 2020. "How Should Capital Be Taxed?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(4), pages 812-846, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    optimal taxation; income types; marginal social welfare weights; flat tax; administrative data;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • D60 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - General

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