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Capital Taxes and Redistribution: The Role of Management Time and Tax Deductible Investment

Author

Listed:
  • Juan Carlos Conesa
  • Begona Dominguez
Abstract
Should capital income be taxed for redistributional purposes? Judd (1985) suggests that it should not. He finds that the optimal capital tax is zero at steady state from the point of view of any agent. This paper re-examines this question in an innitely-lived worker-capitalist model, in which capitalists devote management time to build capital. Two forms of capital taxation are considered: one for which investment is not tax deductible (corporate tax) and a second one for which investment is fully and immediately tax deductible (dividend tax). Our main results are as follows. The optimal corporate tax is zero at steady state from the point of view of any agent. However, the optimal dividend tax is in general not zero at steady state and depends on preference parameters, life-time wealth and the point of view (Pareto weights) of the benevolent policymaker. For Pareto weights that lead to Pareto-improving reforms, we find that labor tax rates should be eliminated while dividend tax rates should be increased to around 36 percent at steady state.

Suggested Citation

  • Juan Carlos Conesa & Begona Dominguez, 2018. "Capital Taxes and Redistribution: The Role of Management Time and Tax Deductible Investment," Department of Economics Working Papers 18-10, Stony Brook University, Department of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:nys:sunysb:18-10
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Thijs Van Rens & Marija Vukotić, 2023. "Delayed Adjustment and Persistence in Macroeconomic Models," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 55(6), pages 1325-1356, September.
    2. Günther Rehme, 2023. "Investment subsidies and redistributive capital income taxation in a neoclassical growth model," Bulletin of Economic Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(4), pages 988-1012, October.
    3. Juan Carlos Conesa & Begoña Domínguez, 2019. "The timing of optimal capital income tax reforms: the role of intangible capital investment," SERIEs: Journal of the Spanish Economic Association, Springer;Spanish Economic Association, vol. 10(3), pages 419-438, November.
    4. Chari, V.V. & Nicolini, Juan Pablo & Teles, Pedro, 2020. "Optimal capital taxation revisited," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 147-165.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • E62 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - Macroeconomic Policy, Macroeconomic Aspects of Public Finance, and General Outlook - - - Fiscal Policy; Modern Monetary Theory
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies

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