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How Progressive is the U.S. Federal Tax System? A Historical and International Perspective

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Thomas Piketty
Emmanuel Saez

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Abstract

This paper provides estimates of federal tax rates by income groups in the United States since 1960, with special emphasis on very top income groups. We include individual and corporate income taxes, payroll taxes, and estate and gift taxes. The progressivity of the U.S. federal tax system at the top of the income distribution has declined dramatically since the 1960s. This dramatic drop in progressivity is due primarily to a drop in corporate taxes and in estate and gift taxes combined with a sharp change in the composition of top incomes away from capital income and toward labor income. The sharp drop in statutory top marginal individual income tax rates has contributed only moderately to the decline in tax progressivity. International comparisons confirm that is it critical to take into account other taxes than the individual income tax to properly assess the extent of overall tax progressivity, both for time trends and for cross-country comparisons. The pattern for the United Kingdom is similar to the US pattern. France had less progressive taxes than the US or UK in 1970 but has experienced an increase in tax progressivity and has now a more progressive tax system than the US or the UK.

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Paper provided by National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc in its series NBER Working Papers with number 12404.

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Date of creation: Aug 2006
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Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:12404

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H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue

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  1. Anthony B. Atkinson & Thomas Piketty & Emmanuel Saez, 2009. "Top Incomes in the Long Run of History," NBER Working Papers 15408, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
  2. Giertz, Seth, 2008. "Taxable Income Responses to 1990s Tax Acts: Further Explorations," MPRA Paper 17602, University Library of Munich, Germany. [Downloadable!]
  3. M Saifur Rahman, 2008. "Should Dynamic Scoring be done with Heterogeneous Agent-Based Models? Challenging the Conventional Wisdom," Caepr Working Papers 2008-023, Center for Applied Economics and Policy Research, Economics Department, Indiana University Bloomington. [Downloadable!]
  4. Marcin Piatkowski & Mariusz Jarmuzek, 2008. "Zero Corporate Income Tax in Moldova: Tax Competition and Its Implications for Eastern Europe," IMF Working Papers 08/203, International Monetary Fund. [Downloadable!]
  5. Jonathan Heathcote & Fabrizio Perri & Giovanni L. Violante, 2009. "Unequal We Stand: An Empirical Analysis of Economic Inequality in the United States, 1967-2006," NBER Working Papers 15483, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc. [Downloadable!] (restricted)
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