IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ntj/journl/v53y2000i3p743-64.html

Estate Taxes and Charitable Bequests by the Wealthy

Author

Listed:
  • Joulfaian, David

Abstract

Charitable bequests are an important source of philanthropic support. Unlike bequests to children, which can be taxed at a maximum statutory rate of 0.55, such transfers are exempt from estate taxation. Thus, by lowering the price of charitable giving, the estate tax may influence the disposition of terminal wealth. In this paper, I examine the effects of estate taxation on charitable bequests using data from estate tax returns of decedents in 1992. The results suggest that the estate tax deduction is "budget" efficient. The overall effects of the estate tax, however, are modest; while the tax stimulates giving by lowering the tax price, it also discourages giving as it reduces terminal wealth.

Suggested Citation

  • Joulfaian, David, 2000. "Estate Taxes and Charitable Bequests by the Wealthy," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 53(3), pages 743-764, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:ntj:journl:v:53:y:2000:i:3:p:743-64
    DOI: 10.17310/ntj.2000.3S.07
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.17310/ntj.2000.3S.07
    Download Restriction: Access is restricted to subscribers and members of the National Tax Association.
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.17310/ntj.2000.3S.07
    Download Restriction: Access is restricted to subscribers and members of the National Tax Association.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17310/ntj.2000.3S.07?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or

    for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Enrique Fatas & Joo Young Jeon & Paloma Ubeda, 2019. "An Experimental Investigation of Charity Rebates," Economics Discussion Papers em-dp2019-12, Department of Economics, University of Reading.
    2. Siha Lee & Kegon Teng Kok Tan, 2023. "Bequest Motives and the Social Security Notch," Review of Economic Dynamics, Elsevier for the Society for Economic Dynamics, vol. 51, pages 888-914, December.
    3. Gale, William & Slemrod, Joel, 2001. "Death Watch for the Estate Tax?," MPRA Paper 56440, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Jon M. Bakija & William G. Gale & Joel B. Slemrod, 2003. "Charitable Bequests and Taxes on Inheritances and Estates: Aggregate Evidence from across States and Time," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 93(2), pages 366-370, May.
    5. Joulfaian, David, 2005. "Choosing between gifts and bequests: How taxes affect the timing of wealth transfers," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(11-12), pages 2069-2091, December.
    6. Michael Rushton, 2008. "Who pays? Who benefits? Who decides?," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 32(4), pages 293-300, December.
    7. David Joulfaian, 2005. "Estate Taxes and Charitable Bequests: Evidence from Two Tax Regimes," Public Economics 0505004, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    8. repec:bri:cmpowp:13/326 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Poterba, James, 2001. "Estate and gift taxes and incentives for inter vivos giving in the US," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 79(1), pages 237-264, January.
    10. John A. List, 2011. "The Market for Charitable Giving," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 25(2), pages 157-180, Spring.
    11. Sanders, Michael & Smith, Sarah, 2016. "Can simple prompts increase bequest giving? Field evidence from a legal call centre," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 179-191.
    12. Anthony B. Atkinson & Peter G. Backus & John Micklewright, 2017. "Charitable Bequests and Wealth At Death," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 127(605), pages 1-23, October.
    13. Bernheim, B. Douglas & Lemke, Robert J. & Scholz, John Karl, 2004. "Do estate and gift taxes affect the timing of private transfers?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(12), pages 2617-2634, December.
    14. William Beranek & David R. Kamerschen & Richard H. Timberlake, 2010. "Charitable Donations and the Estate Tax: A Tale of Two Hypotheses," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 69(3), pages 1054-1078, July.
    15. James R. Hines Jr., 2013. "The Redistributive Potential of Transfer Taxation," Public Finance Review, , vol. 41(6), pages 885-903, November.
    16. Warren B. Hrung, 2004. "After‐Life Consumption and Charitable Giving," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 63(3), pages 731-745, July.
    17. Doerrenberg, Philipp & Peichl, Andreas & Siegloch, Sebastian, 2014. "Sufficient Statistic or Not? The Elasticity of Taxable Income in the Presence of Deduction Possibilities," IZA Discussion Papers 8554, IZA Network @ LISER.
    18. Joulfaian, David, 2004. "Gift taxes and lifetime transfers: time series evidence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(9-10), pages 1917-1929, August.
    19. Joulfaian, David, 2001. "Choosing Between an Income Tax and a Wealth Transfer Tax," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 54(n. 3), pages 629-43, September.
    20. Philipp Doerrenberg & Andreas Peichl & Sebastian Siegloch, 2017. "The Elasticity of Taxable Income in the Presence of Deduction Possibilities," NBER Chapters, in: Personal Income Taxation and Household Behavior (TAPES), National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    21. Robert B. Avery & Daniel Grodzicki & Kevin B. Moore, 2013. "Estate vs. capital gains taxation: an evaluation of prospective policies for taxing wealth at the time of death," Finance and Economics Discussion Series 2013-28, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (U.S.).
    22. Parker, Dominic P. & Thurman, Walter N., "undated". "Tax Incentives and the Price of Conservation," CEnREP Working Papers 264977, North Carolina State University, Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
    23. Michael Sanders & Sarah Smith, 2014. "A warm glow in the after life? The determinants of charitable bequests," The Centre for Market and Public Organisation 14/326, The Centre for Market and Public Organisation, University of Bristol, UK.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D19 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Other
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ntj:journl:v:53:y:2000:i:3:p:743-64. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: The University of Chicago Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.ntanet.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.