Tax Evasion and Inequality
Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
Standard
Tax Evasion and Inequality. / Alstadsæter, Annette; Johannesen, Niels; Zucman, Gabriel.
I: American Economic Review, Bind 109, Nr. 6, 06.2019, s. 2073-2103.Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskrift › Tidsskriftartikel › Forskning › fagfællebedømt
Harvard
APA
Vancouver
Author
Bibtex
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
T1 - Tax Evasion and Inequality
AU - Alstadsæter, Annette
AU - Johannesen, Niels
AU - Zucman, Gabriel
PY - 2019/6
Y1 - 2019/6
N2 - Drawing on a unique dataset of leaked customer lists from offshore financial institutions matched to administrative wealth records in Scandinavia, we show that offshore tax evasion is highly concentrated among the rich. The skewed distribution of offshore wealth implies high rates of tax evasion at the top: we find that the 0.01 percent richest households evade about 25 percent of their taxes. By contrast, tax evasion detected in stratified random tax audits is less than 5 percent throughout the distribution. Top wealth shares increase substantially when accounting for unreported assets, highlighting the importance of factoring in tax evasion to properly measure inequality.
AB - Drawing on a unique dataset of leaked customer lists from offshore financial institutions matched to administrative wealth records in Scandinavia, we show that offshore tax evasion is highly concentrated among the rich. The skewed distribution of offshore wealth implies high rates of tax evasion at the top: we find that the 0.01 percent richest households evade about 25 percent of their taxes. By contrast, tax evasion detected in stratified random tax audits is less than 5 percent throughout the distribution. Top wealth shares increase substantially when accounting for unreported assets, highlighting the importance of factoring in tax evasion to properly measure inequality.
U2 - 10.1257/aer.20172043
DO - 10.1257/aer.20172043
M3 - Journal article
VL - 109
SP - 2073
EP - 2103
JO - American Economic Review
JF - American Economic Review
SN - 0002-8282
IS - 6
ER -
ID: 221650867