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On the Diferrence between Income and Consumption Taxes when the Return to Savings is uncertain

Author

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  • Wolfram F. RICHTER

    (University of Dortmund)

  • Wolfgang WIEGARD

    (University of Regensburg)

Abstract

The taxation of income is usually criticized for the efficiency loss that results from distorting the intertemporal consumption decision. This argument is rejected in a world where the return to savings is random. It is shown that a distorting marginal tax on uncertain interest income serves as partial insurance and that this effect outweighs the efficiency loss, if only the first marginal dollar in tax revenue is valued less elastically than the last dollar spent on private consumption. A consumption tax - even one with intertemporally differentiated rates - would not provide insurance under these circumstances. The explicit consideration of uncertainty thus gives support to taxes that allow differentiation between the safe wi thdrawal of savings and the random return thereon.

Suggested Citation

  • Wolfram F. RICHTER & Wolfgang WIEGARD, 1991. "On the Diferrence between Income and Consumption Taxes when the Return to Savings is uncertain," Discussion Papers (REL - Recherches Economiques de Louvain) 1991044, Université catholique de Louvain, Institut de Recherches Economiques et Sociales (IRES).
    • Handle: RePEc:ctl:louvre:1991044
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    Cited by:

    1. Dirk Schindler, 2008. "Taxing Risky Capital Income - A Commodity Taxation Approach," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 64(3), pages 311-333, September.
    2. Syed Ahsan & Peter Tsigaris, 1998. "The design of a consumption tax under capital risk," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 68(1), pages 53-78, February.
    3. Stefan Bach, 2016. "Erbschaftsteuer, Vermögensteuer oder Kapitaleinkommensteuer: Wie sollen hohe Vermögen stärker besteuert werden?," Discussion Papers of DIW Berlin 1619, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research.
    4. Wolfram Richter, 1992. "The optimal taxation of risky capital income: An elasticity rule," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 101-111, February.
    5. Schindler, Dirk, 2003. "Optimal Income Taxation with a Risky Asset: The Triple Income Tax," CoFE Discussion Papers 03/11, University of Konstanz, Center of Finance and Econometrics (CoFE).
    6. Syed M. Ahsan & Panagiotis Tsigaris, 2003. "Choice of Tax Base Revisited: Cash Flow vs. Prepayment Approaches to Consumption Taxation," CESifo Working Paper Series 983, CESifo.

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