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Why is there so little tax coordination? The role of majority voting and international tax evasion

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  • Fuest, Clemens
  • Huber, Bernd

Abstract

It is a striking feature of EU tax policy that countries find it difficult to agree on capital tax coordination. This is in conflict with the prevailing theoretical view, according to which tax coordination is beneficial. This paper develops a political economy argument which may help to explain this puzzle. We consider a model of tax competition where fiscal policy decisions are taken via majority voting and tax evasion is possible but costly. It turns out that tax coordination agreements may fail to generate political support because middle income groups may lose from tax coordination, even if their capital income is below average.
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  • Fuest, Clemens & Huber, Bernd, 2001. "Why is there so little tax coordination? The role of majority voting and international tax evasion," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 31(2-3), pages 299-317, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:regeco:v:31:y:2001:i:2-3:p:299-317
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    Cited by:

    1. Stéphane Guimbert, 2002. "Réformes de la fiscalité du capital en Europe," Revue Française d'Économie, Programme National Persée, vol. 16(4), pages 113-169.
    2. Hsun Chu & Chu-Chuan Cheng & Yu-Bong Lai, 2015. "A political economy of tax havens," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 22(6), pages 956-976, December.
    3. Rudiger Ahrend & Carlos Winograd, 2006. "The political economy of mass privatisation and imperfect taxation: Winners and loosers," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 126(1), pages 201-224, January.
    4. Gallo, Fredrik, 2005. "Determining the Level of Transportation Costs in the Core-Periphery Model: a Majority Voting Approach," Working Papers 2005:32, Lund University, Department of Economics.
    5. Susana Peralta, 2007. "Political Support for Tax Decentralization," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 9(6), pages 1013-1030, December.
    6. Weinreich, Daniel, 2013. "Fair tax evasion and majority voting over redistributive taxation," MPRA Paper 48919, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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