We investigate bunching at personal tax thresholds over a 40-year period. At kinks, where the marginal tax rate rises, we find bunching among company owner-managers and the self-employed, but not those with only employment income. Notches, where the average rate rises, provide compelling...

This year’s $1.35 trillion tax cut reduced income tax rates and modestly liberalized the tax rules for retirement saving plans. However, the new tax law did not slow the progression of the tax code toward increasing levels of complexity. In fact, the law made 441 changes to the tax code and...

Substantial variations in the cost of living among regions in the United States are a major impediment to achieving a fair and equitable income tax system. Geographic cost of living differences arise because of disparities in the consumption power of income in different regions. Although the...

Estates and trusts are recognizing growing amounts of taxable income from “income in respect of a decedent” (or “IRD”). These are payments attributable to income earned by a decedent before death but received by an estate, trust, or other beneficiary after death, and taxed to that...

This paper describes the relevance to lawyers and law students of the concept of income for tax purposes and tax policy. Three reasons are given for law practitioners to have an understanding of the policies underlying tax legislation: the complexity of the legislation; the fact that it can...

In the process of furthering EU integration little attention was given to the role of income taxes. Multiple income tax systems exist across the Union and their differentiation negatively impacts the European labour market, investments and savings, inhibiting economic growth. Individual nations...

The expected utility formulation of the problem of a risk-averse agent's allocating a portfolio between a safe and a risky asset is widely taken as standing for the proposition that if α* ε (0, 1) is the optimal allocation to the risky asset in the absence of tax, α*/(1-t) is the optimal...

Technological advancements are playing a transformative role in curtailing the need for labor. These very same forces are catapulting capital in the form of robotics, machinery, and intellectual property to the economic forefront. In virtually every sphere of human existence, labor's decline and...

We study the optimal taxation of expenditures that generate income while also serving a consumption function. We characterize the Pareto optimal income tax deduction for such mixed-purpose expenditures within a generalized Atkinson-Stiglitz model. Pareto optimality requires a partial deduction...

We find a negative relation between hedge fund manager’s personal income tax rates and fund performance. Using changes in tax deferral regulation or state-level tax rates suggest causality in the tax-performance relation. Managers are less likely to hold stocks with greater information...