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Labor and capital income taxation, fiscal competition, and the distribution of wealth

Author

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  • Fuest, Clemens
  • Huber, Bernd

Abstract

This paper studies optimum income taxation in a small open economy where households differ with respect to their endowments with wealth. The government raises taxes on income from labor and wealth and a source tax on capital used in domestic production. To avoid taxes, households may, at some cost, shift capital to labor income and vice versa. The government can only observe income after shifting has taken place. It turns out that the optimal source tax on capital is negative. The optimal income tax is characterized by a positive marginal tax rate for the wealthy households, which is equal for labor income and income from wealth. For the poor households, the marginal tax rate on capital income is higher than that on labor income. We also study international tax coordination and show that a reduction in the source subsidy on capital raises welfare.

Suggested Citation

  • Fuest, Clemens & Huber, Bernd, 2001. "Labor and capital income taxation, fiscal competition, and the distribution of wealth," Munich Reprints in Economics 20294, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:lmu:muenar:20294
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    Cited by:

    1. Marcel Gérard, 2002. "Tax Competition, the Distribution of MNE's Ownership and the Wage Formation Process," CESifo Working Paper Series 631, CESifo.
    2. Kangoh Lee, 2012. "Why is mobile capital taxed?," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 107(2), pages 157-181, October.
    3. Yang, Hongyan, 2018. "Income redistribution and public goods provision under tax competition," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 94-103.
    4. Lambert Peter J. & Thoresen Thor O., 2012. "The Inequality Effects of a Dual Income Tax System," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 12(1), pages 1-17, July.
    5. Hakan Selin & Laurent Simula, 2017. "Income Creation and/or Income Shifting? The Intensive vs. the Extensive Shifting Margins," Post-Print halshs-01666994, HAL.
    6. Vidar Christiansen & Matti Tuomala, 2008. "On taxing capital income with income shifting," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 15(4), pages 527-545, August.
    7. Alison Felix, 2007. "The incidence of capital taxation and the magnitude of its burden," Regional Research Working Paper RRWP 07-02, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.
    8. Håkan Selin & Laurent Simula, 2017. "Income Shifting as Income Creation? The Intensive vs. the Extensive Shifting Margins," CESifo Working Paper Series 6510, CESifo.
    9. Garcia Penalosa, Cecilia & Turnovsky, Stephen J., 2005. "Second-best optimal taxation of capital and labor in a developing economy," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(5-6), pages 1045-1074, June.
    10. Ulrich Hange, 2008. "Tax Competition, Elastic Labor Supply, and Growth," CESifo Working Paper Series 2338, CESifo.
    11. Dae Jin Kim & In Kwon Park, 2017. "The local distribution of endowments matters: Modelling tax competition with heterogeneous local residents," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 54(14), pages 3239-3259, November.
    12. Atanu Ghoshray & Issam Malki & Javier Ordóñez, 2020. "Trends, Breaks and Persistence in Top Income Shares," Working Papers 2020/12, Economics Department, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón (Spain).

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