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The Marginal Excess Burden of Different Capital Tax Instruments

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  • Don Fullerton
  • Yolanda K. Henderson

Abstract

Marginal excess burden, defined as the change in deadweight loss for an additional dollar of tax revenue, has been measured for labor taxes, output taxes, and capital taxes generally. This paper points out that there is no we1 1-defined way to raise capital taxes in general, because the taxation of income from capital depends on many different policy instruments including the statutory corporate income tax rate, the investment tax credit rate, depreciation lifetimes, declining balance rates for depreciation allowances, and personal tax rates on noncorporate income, interest receipts, dividends, and capital gains. Marginal excess burden is measured for each of these different capital tax instruments, using a general equilibrium model that encompasses distortions in the allocation of real resources over time, among industries, between the corporate and noncorporate sectors, and among diverse types of equipment, structures, inventories, and land. Although numerical results are sensitive to specifications for key substitution elasticity parameters, important qualitative results are not. We find that an increase in the corporate rate has the highest marginal excess burden, because it distorts intersectoral and interasset decisions as well as intertemporal decisions. At the other extreme, an investment tax credit reduction has negative marginal excess burden because it raises revenue while reducing interasset distortions more than it increases intertemporal distortions. In general, we find that marginal excess burdens of different capital tax instruments vary significantly. They can be more or less than the marginal excess burden of the payroll tax or the progressive personal income tax.

Suggested Citation

  • Don Fullerton & Yolanda K. Henderson, 1987. "The Marginal Excess Burden of Different Capital Tax Instruments," NBER Working Papers 2353, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
  • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:2353
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    2. Lemelin, André & Savard, Luc, 2022. "What do CGE models have to say about fiscal reform?," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 758-774.
    3. Niels Johannesen, 2011. "Strategic Line Drawing between Debt and Equity," EPRU Working Paper Series 2011-04, Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    4. Robert S. Chirinko, 2000. "Investment Tax Credits," CESifo Working Paper Series 243, CESifo.
    5. Mickael Beaud & Thierry Blayac & Patrice Bougette & Soufiane Khoudmi & Philippe Mahenc & Stéphane Mussard, 2013. "Estimation du coût d'opportunité des fonds publics pour l'économie française," Studies and Syntheses 14-01, LAMETA, Universtiy of Montpellier, revised Oct 2014.
    6. David L. Weimer, 2002. "A better corporate tax?," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 21(4), pages 693-696.
    7. Yunfa Zhu & Madanmohan Ghosh & Deming Luo & Nick Macaluso & Jacob Rattray, 2018. "Revenue Recycling And Cost Effective Ghg Abatement: An Exploratory Analysis Using A Global Multi-Sector Multi-Region Cge Model," Climate Change Economics (CCE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 9(01), pages 1-25, February.
    8. Charles L. Ballard & Don Fullerton, 1992. "Distortionary Taxes and the Provision of Public Goods," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 6(3), pages 117-131, Summer.
    9. Ruud Mooij, 2005. "Will Corporate Income Taxation Survive?," De Economist, Springer, vol. 153(3), pages 277-301, September.
    10. Karpowicz Andrzej, 2018. "Corporate Income Tax Rates in the EU Member States: Why Lower Means Better," Financial Internet Quarterly (formerly e-Finanse), Sciendo, vol. 14(3), pages 32-48, September.
    11. Giuseppe Ruggieri, 1999. "The marginal cost of public funds in closed and small open economies," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 20(1), pages 41-60, March.
    12. Jason Nassios & John Madden & James Giesecke & Janine Dixon & Nhi Tran & Peter Dixon & Maureen Rimmer & Philip Adams & John Freebairn, 2019. "The economic impact and efficiency of state and federal taxes in Australia," Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre Working Papers g-289, Victoria University, Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre.
    13. Peter Birch Sørensen, 2011. "Measuring the Deadweight Loss from Taxation in a Small Open Economy. A general method with an application to Sweden," EPRU Working Paper Series 2011-03, Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    14. Janine M. Dixon & Jason Nassios, 2018. "A Dynamic Economy-wide Analysis of Company Tax Cuts in Australia," Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre Working Papers g-287, Victoria University, Centre of Policy Studies/IMPACT Centre.

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