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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. Árpád Ábrahám & Pavel Brendler & Eva Cárceles‐Poveda, 2024. "Capital Tax Reforms With Policy Uncertainty," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 65(1), pages 75-116, February.
    3. 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.
    4. Kempkes, Gerhard & Stähler, Nikolai, 2021. "Re-allocating taxing rights and minimum tax rates in international profit taxation," Discussion Papers 03/2021, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    5. 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.
    6. Anagnostopoulos, Alexis & Atesagaoglu, Orhan Erem, 2023. "Shareholder tax cuts with household and firm heterogeneity," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).

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