Data and Code for: Behavioral Responses to Wealth Taxes: Evidence from Switzerland

Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s) Marius Brülhart, University of Lausanne; Jonathan Gruber, MIT; Matthias Krapf, University of Basel and University of Lausanne; Kurt Schmidheiny, University of Basel

Version: View help for Version V1

Name	File Type	Size	Last Modified
case-study			12/08/2021 10:37:AM
cross-canton			12/08/2021 10:38:AM
README.txt	text/plain	935 bytes	12/08/2021 05:37:AM

Project Citation:

Brülhart, Marius, Gruber, Jonathan, Krapf, Matthias, and Schmidheiny, Kurt. Data and Code for: Behavioral Responses to Wealth Taxes: Evidence from Switzerland. Nashville, TN: American Economic Association [publisher], 2022. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2022-10-20. https://doi.org/10.3886/E142381V1

Project Description

Summary:

We study how reported wealth responds to changes in wealth tax rates. Exploiting rich intra-national variation in Switzerland, we find that a 1 percentage point drop in the wealth tax rate raises reported wealth by at least 43% after 6 years. Administrative tax records of two cantons with quasi-randomly assigned differential tax reforms suggest that 24% of the effect arise from taxpayer mobility and 21% from a concurrent rise in reported house prices. Savings responses appear unable to explain more than a small fraction of the remainder, suggesting sizable evasion responses in this setting with no third-party reporting of financial wealth.

Funding Sources: Swiss National Science Foundation (166618); Swiss National Science Foundation (147668)

Scope of Project

Subject Terms: Wealth Taxation; Behavioral Responses; Taxpayer Mobility; Tax Avoidance

JEL Classification:
      H24 Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies; includes inheritance and gift taxes
      H26 Tax Evasion and Avoidance
      H71 State and Local Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue

Geographic Coverage: Switerland

Time Period(s): 1995 – 2017 (yearly)

Universe: Swiss cantons
Individual taxpayers from the cantons of Lucerne and Bern

Data Type(s): administrative records data; aggregate data

Methodology

Data Source: Swiss Federal Department of Finance

Swiss Federal Tax Administration
Swiss Federal Statistical Office
LUSTAT Statistik Luzern
Steuerverwaltung des Kantons Bern
Fahrländer Partner

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Published Versions

V1 [2022-10-20]

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