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Financing Corporate Tax Cuts with Shareholder Taxes

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  • Alexis Anagnostopoulos
  • Orhan Erem Atesagaoglu
  • Eva Carceles-Poveda

Abstract

We study the aggregate and distributional consequences of replacing corporate profit taxes with shareholder taxes, namely, taxes on dividends and capital gains, in a setting with incomplete markets and heterogeneity at both the household and the firm level. The reform yields distributional gains with a large majority of households benefiting. Moreover, if dividend and capital gains are taxed at the same rate, the reform is also efficiency-enhancing and the implied optimal corporate income tax rate is zero. In contrast, an asymmetric tax treatment of dividend and capital gains induces a trade-off between efficiency and distributional concerns that is optimally resolved at a positive optimal corporate tax rate, implying double taxation.

Suggested Citation

  • Alexis Anagnostopoulos & Orhan Erem Atesagaoglu & Eva Carceles-Poveda, 2018. "Financing Corporate Tax Cuts with Shareholder Taxes," Department of Economics Working Papers 18-07, Stony Brook University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:nys:sunysb:18-07
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    Cited by:

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    2. Danilo Stojanovic, 2022. "The 2003 Tax Reform and Corporate Payout Policy in the US," CERGE-EI Working Papers wp727, The Center for Economic Research and Graduate Education - Economics Institute, Prague.
    3. Chang, Juin-Jen & Kuo, Chun-Hung & Lin, Hsieh-Yu & Yang, Shu-Chun S., 2023. "Share buybacks and corporate tax cuts," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    4. Anagnostopoulos, Alexis & Atesagaoglu, Orhan Erem, 2023. "Shareholder tax cuts with household and firm heterogeneity," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    5. Manuela Ortega-Gil & Fernando Pinto & Alfredo Cabezas Ares & Isabel Rodríguez-Iglesias, 2024. "Corporate taxation in Spain: analyzing efficiency and revenue potential," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-8, December.
    6. Kempkes, Gerhard & Stähler, Nikolai, 2021. "Re-allocating taxing rights and minimum tax rates in international profit taxation," Discussion Papers 03/2021, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    7. Chung Tran & Sebastian Wende, 2020. "Incidence of Capital Income Taxation in a Lifecycle Economy with Firm Heterogeneity," ANU Working Papers in Economics and Econometrics 2019-670, Australian National University, College of Business and Economics, School of Economics.

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