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Top Income Shares, Business Profits, and Effective Tax Rates in Contemporary Chile

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  • Jorratt De Luis, Michel
  • Fairfield, Tasha

Abstract

We contribute to research on inequality and world top incomes by presenting the first calculations of Chilean top income shares and effective tax rates using individual tax return microdata from 2005 and 2009. We pay special attention to business income, which dominates at the top. Our analysis includes not only distributed profits, but also the large proportion of accrued profits retained by firms, which are rarely analyzed given the difficulty of identifying individual owners. Our most conservative top 1 percent income†share estimate is 15 percent—the fifth highest in the top incomes literature. When distributed profits are adjusted for evasion, the top 1 percent share reaches 22–26 percent. When we broaden the income concept to include accrued profits, which we impute to taxpayers using ownership shares calculated from business tax forms, the top 1 percent share increases to a minimum of 23 percent. Despite this impressive income concentration, the top 1 percent pays modest average effective income†tax rates of 15–16 percent.

Suggested Citation

  • Jorratt De Luis, Michel & Fairfield, Tasha, 2015. "Top Income Shares, Business Profits, and Effective Tax Rates in Contemporary Chile," Working Papers 13744, Institute of Development Studies, International Centre for Tax and Development.
    • Handle: RePEc:idq:ictduk:13744
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    File URL: https://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/handle/20.500.12413/13744
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Sofía Bauducco & Gonzalo Castex & Andrew Davis, 2019. "The wealth distribution in developed and developing economies: comparing the United States to Chile using survey data from 2007," Journal Economía Chilena (The Chilean Economy), Central Bank of Chile, vol. 22(3), pages 154-203, December.
    2. Raymundo M. Campos-Vazquez & Emmanuel Chavez & Gerardo Esquivel, 2016. "Estimating top income shares without tax return data: Mexico since the 1990s," Serie documentos de trabajo del Centro de Estudios Económicos 2016-04, El Colegio de México, Centro de Estudios Económicos.
    3. Fairfield, Tasha, 2015. "Structural power in comparative political economy:perspectives from policy formulation in Latin America," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 62123, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. Seth D. Zimmerman, 2019. "Elite Colleges and Upward Mobility to Top Jobs and Top Incomes," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(1), pages 1-47, January.
    5. Gutiérrez C., Pablo & López, Ramón E. & Figueroa B., Eugenio, 2015. "Top income measurement and undistributed profits," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 138-140.
    6. Fairfield Tasha, 2015. "Structural power in comparative political economy: perspectives from policy formulation in Latin America," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 17(3), pages 411-441, October.
    7. Ramón E. López & Eugenio Figueroa B. & Pablo Gutiérrez C., 2016. "Fundamental accrued capital gains and the measurement of top incomes: an application to Chile," The Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer;Society for the Study of Economic Inequality, vol. 14(4), pages 379-394, December.
    8. Eduardo Olaberría, 2016. "Bringing all Chileans on board," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 1289, OECD Publishing.
    9. Claudio A. Agostini & Eduardo Engel & Andrea Repetto & Damián Vergara, 2018. "Using small businesses for individual tax planning: evidence from special tax regimes in Chile," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(6), pages 1449-1489, December.

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