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Business Income and Business Taxation in the United States since the 1950s

Author

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  • Conor Clarke
  • Wojciech Kopczuk

Abstract

In theory, the US tax system aims to attribute and tax all business income to individuals, but the tax treatment of this income varies. Pass-through income is taxed when earned, capital gains income is taxed when realized, dividends when distributed, and other forms of business income may escape taxation entirely. Business owners have control over the timing and character of their income: they can often choose, for example, between reporting business income or deducting it as wages or fringe benefits. And laws change, changing the incentive and ability to shift income between the individual and corporate sectors.We integrate a wide variety of tax data to document the large long-run changes in the structure of business income and business taxation in the United States. These changes include the degree to which business incomes are taxed on a realization versus an accrual basis, the extent to which taxation is deferred, and the share of business income that is ultimately subject to taxation. We highlight the evolving relevance of retained earnings in the changing corporate sector and its relationship to equity values and unrealized capital gains. We also document the evolution of individual income components--profits of pass-through entities, dividends, and capital gains (both taxable gains and those escaping taxation through step-up). As a result of these changes, business incomes are increasingly taxed through personal income taxes instead of a combination of corporate and personal taxes. In particular, this implies that observability of business incomes on personal income tax returns has improved over time, a fact that has implications for measuring and understanding the income distribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Conor Clarke & Wojciech Kopczuk, 2017. "Business Income and Business Taxation in the United States since the 1950s," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 31(1), pages 121-159.
  • Handle: RePEc:ucp:tpolec:doi:10.1086/691085
    DOI: 10.1086/691085
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    Cited by:

    1. Kopczuk, Wojciech & Alstadsæter, Annette & Jacob, Martin & Telle, Kjetil, 2016. "Accounting for Business Income in Measuring Top Income Shares: Integrated Accrual Approach Using Individual and Firm Data from," CEPR Discussion Papers 11671, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    2. Matthew Smith & Danny Yagan & Owen Zidar & Eric Zwick, 2019. "Capitalists in the Twenty-First Century," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 134(4), pages 1675-1745.
    3. Annette Alstadsæter & Martin Jacob & Wojciech Kopczuk & Kjetil Telle, 2016. "Accounting for Business Income in Measuring Top Income Shares: Integrated Accrual Approach Using Individual and Firm Data from Norway," NBER Working Papers 22888, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Stefan Jestl & Emanuel List, 2020. "Distributional National Accounts (DINA) for Austria, 2004-2016," Working Papers halshs-03022077, HAL.
    5. Robert J. Barro & Brian Wheaton, 2020. "Taxes, Incorporation, and Productivity," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 34(1), pages 91-111.
    6. Di Nola, Alessandro & Kocharkov, Georgi & Scholl, Almuth & Tkhir, Anna-Mariia & Wang, Haomin, 2022. "Taxation of Top Incomes and Tax Avoidance," VfS Annual Conference 2022 (Basel): Big Data in Economics 264016, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    7. Stefan Jestl & Emanuel List, 2023. "Inequality, Redistribution, and the Financial Crisis: Evidence from Distributional National Accounts for Austria," Review of Income and Wealth, International Association for Research in Income and Wealth, vol. 69(1), pages 195-227, March.
    8. Stefan Jestl & Emanuel List, 2020. "Distributional National Accounts (DINA) for Austria, 2004-2016," World Inequality Lab Working Papers halshs-03022077, HAL.
    9. Stefan Jestl & Emanuel List, 2020. "Distributional national accounts (DINA) for Austria 2004-2016," Working Paper Reihe der AK Wien - Materialien zu Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft 197, Kammer für Arbeiter und Angestellte für Wien, Abteilung Wirtschaftswissenschaft und Statistik.
    10. Tazhitdinova, Alisa, 2020. "Are changes of organizational form costly? Income shifting and business entry responses to taxes," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    11. Kwon, Spencer Y. & Ma, Yueran & Zimmermann, Kaspar, 2022. "100 years of rising corporate concentration," SAFE Working Paper Series 359, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    12. Wojciech Kopczuk & Eric Zwick, 2020. "Business Incomes at the Top," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 34(4), pages 27-51, Fall.
    13. Francesco Furno, 2021. "The Macroeconomic Effects of Corporate Tax Reforms," Papers 2111.12799, arXiv.org.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D31 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - Personal Income and Wealth Distribution
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies

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