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Income shifting as income creation?

Author

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  • Selin, Håkan
  • Simula, Laurent

Abstract

Income shifting arises as one of the key questions when thinking about the design of a tax system as a whole. We study a simple economy, involving a benevolent policy-maker and a population of agents differing in terms of productivities, labor supply elasticities, and shifting costs. Paying special attention to the cost structure of income shifting, we highlight that when people who shift easily along the extensive margin are also more elastic in labor supply, giving them a lower tax rate is a good thing, and the government should not necessarily combat income shifting. This mechanism may be compared to third-degree price discrimination in industrial organization and works as a form of endogenous tagging. We explore this possibility numerically before showing that our results derived for a policy-maker optimally adjusting two linear tax instruments carry over when two fully non-linear taxes are potentially available.

Suggested Citation

  • Selin, Håkan & Simula, Laurent, 2020. "Income shifting as income creation?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:182:y:2020:i:c:s0047272719301422
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2019.104081
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Pawel Doligalski & Luis E. Rojas, 2024. "Optimal Taxation, Informality and Welfare: Redistribution Costs and Efficiency Gains," Working Papers 1452, Barcelona School of Economics.
    2. Hirofumi Takikawa, 2023. "Optimal Income Taxation and Formalization of the Informal Economy," Working Papers e189, Tokyo Center for Economic Research.
    3. Selin Håkan, 2024. "Taxing Dividends in a Dual Income Tax System: The Nordic Experience with the Income Splitting Rules," Nordic Tax Journal, Sciendo, vol. 2024(s1), pages 83-94.
    4. Georges Casamatta, 2023. "Optimal income taxation with tax avoidance and endogenous labour supply," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 56(3), pages 913-939, August.
    5. Spencer Bastani & Sebastian Koehne, 2024. "How Should Consumption Be Taxed?," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 80(3), pages 259-302.
    6. Doligalski, Paweł & Rojas, Luis E., 2023. "Optimal redistribution with a shadow economy," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 18(2), May.
    7. Escobar, Sebastian & Ohlsson, Henry & Selin, Håkan, 2023. "Giving to the children or the taxman?," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    8. Casamatta, Georges & Cremer, Helmuth, 2025. "Tax avoidance and commodity tax differentiation," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 257(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

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    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

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