An often neglected implication of couple taxation is its impact on marital sorting. A tractable model of such an impact is offered in this paper. It reveals that, as compared to joint taxation with income splitting, individual taxation makes higher-ability individuals more picky in the marriage...

Joint taxation of married couples represents a puzzle for welfare economics. We investigate whether political economy forces can explain its persistence. We develop sufficient statistics to determine whether a reform towards individual taxation would garner majority support and apply this...

We develop a theory of tax reforms for a setting with multi-dimensional heterogeneity amongst taxpayers and multiple economic decisions that are all subject to fixed and variable costs. The theorems in this paper provide a complete characterization of the conditions under which Pareto- or...

In a dual income tax (DIT) system, labor income is taxed progressively, while capital income is subject to a lower proportional tax. DIT systems were introduced in Sweden, Norway, and Finland in the early 1990s. In the absence of rules restricting capital income distributions, owners of...

We develop a theory of tax reforms for a setting with multi-dimensional heterogeneity amongst taxpayers and multiple economic decisions that are all subject to fixed and variable costs. The theorems in this paper provide a complete characterization of the conditions under which Pareto- or...

In this paper, we examine reforms that alleviate large employment disincentives induced by child-related transfers for married mothers. We develop a life-cycle model where married couples face labor market, child care and fertility risk, and make joint labor supply and consumption-saving...

In a dual income tax (DIT) system, labor income is taxed progressively, while capital income is subject to a lower proportional tax. DIT systems were introduced in Sweden, Norway, and Finland in the early 1990s. In the absence of rules restricting capital income distributions, owners of...

This paper studies the impact of tax incentives on economic behavior within the household. We focus on an Italian tax policy that grants a large tax credit to main earners if their spouses, designated as “dependent spouses” by the tax law, report income below a certain threshold. Combining a...

Germany is characterised by large gender gaps in the labour market. Both the gender pay gap as well as the gender gap in working hours are among the highest in Europe. Family policy reforms such as increasing the parental leave period that is ear-marked for fathers as well as reducing the high...

Es wird eine Reform der Ehegattenbesteuerung vorgeschlagen, die darauf abzielt, dienegativen Arbeitsanreize beim Zweitverdiener zu reduzieren. Zu diesem Zweck soll dasEhegattensplitting durch eine Individualbesteuerung ersetzt werden, allerdings nur in demMaße, in dem rechtliche...

In dieser Expertise für den Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung werden Reformen im Steuer- und Transfersystem untersucht, die darauf abzielen, die Erwerbsanreize zu stärken. Es handelt sich hierbei um Reformen in der Grundsicherung und bei der...

This paper studies the tax treatment of couples. We develop two different approaches. One is tailored to the analysis of tax systems that stick to the principle that the tax base for couples is the sum of their incomes. One is tailored to the analysis of reforms toward individual taxation. We...

Es wird eine Reform der Ehegattenbesteuerung vorgeschlagen, die darauf abzielt, dienegativen Arbeitsanreize beim Zweitverdiener zu reduzieren. Zu diesem Zweck soll dasEhegattensplitting durch eine Individualbesteuerung ersetzt werden, allerdings nur in demMaße, in dem rechtliche...

Germany is characterised by large gender gaps in the labour market. Both the gender pay gap as well as the gender gap in working hours are among the highest in Europe. Family policy reforms such as increasing the parental leave period that is ear-marked for fathers as well as reducing the high...

This paper evaluates two hypothetical budget-neutral reforms that shift resources from family tax expenditures to family cash transfers. We evaluate these reforms using a structural labor supply model based on the microsimulation EUROMOD model and EU-SILC data. We find that both reforms have an...

In dieser Expertise für den Sachverständigenrat zur Begutachtung der gesamtwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung werden Reformen im Steuer- und Transfersystem untersucht, die darauf abzielen, die Erwerbsanreize zu stärken. Es handelt sich hierbei um Reformen in der Grundsicherung und bei der...

We examine the impact of the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) on fertility and parental investment in children. The CDCTC aims to support working parents but its availability only to families with children incentivizing having more children or increasing investment in existing ones....

This paper evaluates two hypothetical budget-neutral reforms that shift resources from family tax expenditures to family cash transfers. We evaluate these reforms using a structural labor supply model based on the microsimulation EUROMOD model and EUSILC data. We find that both reforms have an...

The earned income tax credit provides important benefits to low-income families with children. At substantial costs (over $70 billion to the US federal government), it increases the incomes of such families while encouraging parents to work more by subsidizing their incomes. But low-income...

Are reforms towards individual taxation politically feasible? Are they desirable from a welfare perspective? We develop a method to answer such questions and apply it to the US federal income tax since the 1960s. Main findings are: As of today, Pareto-improvements require a move away from joint...

This paper studies the tax treatment of couples. We develop two different ap-proaches. One is tailored to the analysis of tax systems that stick to the principle that the tax base for couples is the sum of their incomes. One is tailored to the analysis of reforms toward individual taxation. We...

This paper studies the tax treatment of couples. We develop two different approaches. One is tailored to the analysis of tax systems that stick to the principle that the tax base for couples is the sum of their incomes. One is tailored to the analysis of reforms toward individual taxation. We...

Das Splittingverfahren dient dazu, horizontale Steuergerechtigkeit zu schaffen. Es wird gezeigt, dass das Splittingverfahren selbst nicht Ursache für die Zurückhaltung von Frauen am Arbeitsmarkt ist. Mit diesem Verfahren bleibt der Gesetzgeber neutral gegenüber den privaten Entscheidungen von...

We develop, apply, and test a new measure of the marriage tax: the reduction in future spending from getting married. Our measure is a comprehensive, actuarial (expected) present value. It incorporates all major and most minor US tax and benefit programs, weighing the present value of additional...

Married couples often face a different tax burden than cohabitating couples with the same income. I study the effect of joint income taxation of married couples on the marriage rate in Switzerland, where tax differentials between married and cohabitating couples vary considerably across cantons....

Das Splittingverfahren dient dazu, horizontale Steuergerechtigkeit zu schaff en. Es wird gezeigt, dass das Splittingverfahren selbst nicht Ursache für die Zurückhaltung von Frauen am Arbeitsmarkt ist. Mit diesem Verfahren bleibt der Gesetzgeber neutral gegenüber den privaten Entscheidungen...

In this paper, we use EUROMOD, the tax-benefit microsimulation model of the European Union, to investigate the impact of marriage-related tax-benefit instruments on the labour supply of married couples. For each married partner, we estimate their individual marginal effective tax rate and net...

We develop, apply, and test a new measure of the marriage tax - the reduction in future spending from getting married - using SCF and ACS data. Our measure incorporates all major and most minor U.S. tax and benefit programs. And it assumes clone marriage - marrying oneself - to ensure the...