An extensive body of the literature has examined the determinants of individual giving to charity. Indeed, the role of the personal income tax continues to attract considerable attention. In contrast, very few have explored the effects of taxes on corporate giving. This paper represents an...

This paper explores the behavioral response of taxable bequests to estate taxation. To gauge its effects, the estate tax is converted to an equivalent income tax. This highlights the importance of expected rates of return, and also makes it possible to compare effective tax rates on saving over...

Like-kind exchanges enable taxpayers to defer capital gains taxes when certain types of property are exchanged rather than sold. The deferred gains from such exchanges have grown over the years, peaking at over $100 billion before the onset of the Great Recession. Equally noteworthy, the share...

This paper explores the implications of evaluating income tax preferences, or tax expenditures, under a consumption tax baseline. First it examines the conceptual differences between income and consumption tax baselines. Next, an X-tax prototype of a consumption tax is employed to gauge the...

This paper investigates the role of governance, in particular tax related bribes, in shaping business tax compliance behavior. The empirical results show that business noncompliance rises with corruption. More specifically, the findings from 27 transition economies suggest that tax evasion...

The income tax deduction for charitable contributions is limited to a fraction of reported income. Consequently, some of the contributions by large donors are not deductible in the year of the transfer, if ever deductible at all. Because this limit is typically ignored in the empirical...

Corporate income is taxed twice, once at the entity level and then taxed once again at the shareholder level. In addition, the corporate tax system favors debt over equity financing of capital expenditures; corporations are able to deduct interest on borrowed funds, unlike the return to equity....

The paper examines the pattern of lifetime transfers during a period of uncertainty in estate taxation where the tax was set to expire, reintroduced, and its reach curtailed. More specifically, it examines lifetime gifts made during the past decade, with a focus on the size and frequency of...

Households can reduce taxes by transferring taxable income generating assets from high income family members to those in lower tax brackets. Parents, for instance, may exploit differences in the marginal tax rates that they face and those that apply to their children. But under progressive...

Shareholder wealth may be maximized by borrowing, as it is tax preferred, or by under reporting firm profits; both shield income from taxation, legally in the case of the former. But does the utilization of one shield crowd out the use of the other? More specifically, does tax evasion lead to...