In the period 2001-2004 two major reforms followed in Belgium: a personal income tax reform (2001) and a reform of social security contributions for low skilled employees (2004). Using a discrete hours labor supply model, this paper assesses the impact of these reforms on aggregate labor supply...

This study aims at contributing to the ongoing debates on the bracket creep, whether Germany needs an integration of inflation indexation into its personal income tax system in order to reduce distortions of tax liabilities and additional tax burdens. On the other hand, Germany has continuously...

This paper uses extensive Finnish panel data from 1995–2007 to analyze the elasticity of taxable income (ETI). I use individual changes in flat municipal income tax rates as an instrument for the overall changes in marginal tax rates. This instrument is not a function of individual income,...

This paper provides, for all OECD countries, an estimate of the net tax cost per currency unit of contribution to a tax-favoured retirement savings plan, using a present-value methodology. The latter takes into account the future flows of revenues foregone on accrued income and of revenues...

The desirability of inheritance and gift taxes depends on individuals' tax responsiveness. This paper demonstrates how strongly, and in what way, the German inheritance and gift tax influences taxpayer behavior. To that end, it combines administrative data with cross-bracket tax variation: a...

The desirability of inheritance and gift taxes depends on individuals’ tax responsiveness. This paper demonstrates how strongly, and in what way, the German inheritance and gift tax influences taxpayer behavior. To that end, it combines administrative data with cross-bracket tax variation: a...

This paper provides, for all OECD countries, an estimate of the net tax cost per currency unit of contribution to a tax-favoured retirement savings plan, using a present-value methodology. The latter takes into account the future flows of revenues foregone on accrued income and of revenues...

We theoretically express the Laffer tax rate on capital income as a function of the elasticities of capital income (the “direct” elasticity) and of labor income (the “cross” elasticity) with respect to the net-of-tax rate on capital income. We estimate these elasticities using salient...

Do the details of the structure of the tax code matter? Which of the elementary components of a modern and complex tax code is most important for households? This paper explores these issues within the framework of an overlapping generation model with heterogeneous agents and with specific...

We investigate how income tax reductions affect work hours. Our empirical strategy relies on the fact that, in states where taxpayers can deduct federal tax payments from state taxable income, federal tax changes are dampened. We study 2003 tax reforms (JGTRRA) that dramatically reduced federal...