The idea of higher wealth taxes to finance the mounting public debt in the wake of the financial crises is gaining ground in several OECD countries. We evaluate the revenue and distributional effects of a one-time capital levy on personal net wealth that is currently on the German political...

Following a Federal Constitutional Court sentence, wealth tax has not been levied in Germany since 1997. A possible revival has since regularly been the subject of political debate. Several German federal states are currently preparing to submit a bill to the Bundesrat. A basic scenario...

Capital taxation is currently under debate, basically due to problems of administrative control and proper assessment of the levied assets. We analyze both problems focusing on a capital tax, the annual wealth tax (WT), which is only applied in five OECD countries, being Spain one of them. We...

In OLG framework, it is generally admitted that PAYG pension system generates a lower capital accumulation, a higher level of interest rate but is more inequality reducing. By taking into account different assets returns and unequal access to them, we find that the PAYG pension system generates...

In the run-up to the 2013 election, the opposition parties of the German parliament have presented several tax reform proposals which first and foremost aim at increasing tax revenue and redistributing wealth. The focus is on reviving the wealth tax-which has not been levied since 1997-and on...

Ever since the financial and economic crisis of 2008/2009, public debt in almost all OECD countries has increased significantly. The European debt crisis has further intensified over the past few weeks. Private households with high levels of wealth and income could be enlisted to help with...

Ever since the financial and economic crisis of 2008/2009, public debt in almost all OECD countries has increased significantly. The European debt crisis has further intensified over the past few weeks. Private households with high levels of wealth and income could be enlisted to help with...

In 1997, the Labour Party was elected in the UK with few explicitly articulated ideas about social security reforms. This paper reviews the large number of subsequent reforms to social security, and argues that some consistent themes have emerged. A commitment to keep to the tight spending plans...

The purpose of this paper is to characterize the class of fiscal rules of income transformation which are equity improving and, at the same time, preserve the ranking of existing distributions. Contrary to the related literature individual well-being depends not just on income but also on...

Domiciliary public utility services in Colombia have a cross subsidy system which charges subsidized rates to the households who live in houses located in strata associated to low wealth levels, and taxed rates to the better off. We assesses the hypothesis that the flow of subsidies that...