IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ntj/journl/v56y2003i1p197-219.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

"What's Come to Perfection Perishes*": Adjusting Capital Gains Taxation in Italy

Author

Listed:
  • Alworth, Julian
  • Arachi, Giampaolo
  • Hamaui, Rony

Abstract

Italy is the first country to have experimented with both accruals and retrospective capital gains taxation along the lines suggested by Vickrey (1939) and Meade (1978). This paper describes the Italian experience, highlighting its peculiar features and the lessons that can be learned by other countries wishing to pursue these approaches. It illustrates the mechanics of the adjustments to the realization based capital gains tax and how far they diverge from the original proposals. The paper also draws attention to the administrative and political difficulties encountered in implementing the reform. These factors ultimately resulted in a repeal of retrospective taxation, and, in due course, may also entail the abolition of taxation on an accrual basis. The paper highlights the crucial role that financial intermediaries can play in lowering compliance costs under a proportional tax system and the effects on tax revenues.

Suggested Citation

  • Alworth, Julian & Arachi, Giampaolo & Hamaui, Rony, 2003. ""What's Come to Perfection Perishes*": Adjusting Capital Gains Taxation in Italy," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 56(1), pages 197-219, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:ntj:journl:v:56:y:2003:i:1:p:197-219
    DOI: 10.17310/ntj.2003.1S.04
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.17310/ntj.2003.1S.04
    Download Restriction: Access is restricted to subscribers and members of the National Tax Association.
    File URL: https://doi.org/10.17310/ntj.2003.1S.04
    Download Restriction: Access is restricted to subscribers and members of the National Tax Association.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.17310/ntj.2003.1S.04?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Auerbach, Alan J. & Bradford, David F., 2004. "Generalized cash-flow taxation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(5), pages 957-980, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Alan J. Auerbach, 2006. "The Future of Capital Income Taxation," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 27(4), pages 399-420, December.
    2. Vincenzo Visco, 2014. "Capital and Business Taxation," ECONOMIA PUBBLICA, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 2014(3), pages 81-111.
    3. Matteo Dalle Luche & Demetrio Guzzardi & Elisa Palagi & Andrea Roventini & Alessandro Santoro, 2024. "Tackling the regressivity of the Italian tax system: An optimal taxation framework with heterogeneous returns to capital," World Inequality Lab Working Papers halshs-04753529, HAL.
    4. Francesco Menoncin & Paolo M. Panteghini, 2010. "Retrospective Capital Gains Taxation in a Dynamic Stochastic World," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 66(3), pages 236-242, September.
    5. Marco Sahm, 2009. "Imitating Accrual Taxation On A Realization Basis," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(4), pages 734-761, September.
    6. Eisenhauer, Joseph G., 2011. "The rich, the poor, and the middle class: Thresholds and intensity indices," Research in Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(4), pages 294-304, December.
    7. Francesco Menoncin & Paolo Panteghini, 2009. "Retrospective Capital Gains Taxation in the Real World," CESifo Working Paper Series 2674, CESifo.
    8. Matteo Dalle Luche & Demetrio Guzzardi & Elisa Palagi & Andrea Roventini & Alessandro Santoro, 2024. "Tackling the regressivity of the Italian tax system: An optimal taxation framework with heterogeneous returns to capital," World Inequality Lab Working Papers halshs-04753529, HAL.
    9. Giampaolo Arachi & Massimo D'Antoni, 2022. "Taxation of capital gains upon accrual: is it really more efficient than realisation?," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(1), pages 39-61, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Alan J. Auerbach, 2006. "The Choice Between Income and Consumption Taxes: A Primer," NBER Working Papers 12307, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Peter Birch Sørensen, 2003. "Neutral Taxation of Shareholder Income: A Norwegian Tax Reform Proposal," EPRU Working Paper Series 03-06, Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    3. Nazik Maqsood & Tanveer Ahmad Shahid & Abaid Ul Rehman, 2024. "The Impact of Dividend and Tax Avoidance on Earning Management of Companies," Bulletin of Business and Economics (BBE), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 13(1), pages 256-272.
    4. Dirk Kiesewetter & Rainer Niemann, 2002. "Neutral Taxation of Pension in a Comprehensive Income Tax," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 59(2), pages 227-248, May.
    5. Francesco Menoncin & Paolo M. Panteghini, 2012. "Ex-Post Equivalence under Capital Gains Taxation," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 32(2), pages 1671-1679.
    6. David F. Bradford, 2003. "The X Tax in the World Economy," Working Papers 109, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    7. Alan J. Auerbach, 2006. "The Future of Capital Income Taxation," Fiscal Studies, Institute for Fiscal Studies, vol. 27(4), pages 399-420, December.
    8. Peter Birch Sørensen, 2006. "Can Capital Income Taxes Survive? And Should They?," EPRU Working Paper Series 06-06, Economic Policy Research Unit (EPRU), University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics.
    9. Peter Birch Sørensen, 2003. "Neutral Taxation of Shareholder Income: A Norwegian Tax Reform Proposal," CESifo Working Paper Series 1036, CESifo.
    10. Matteo Bizzarri & Daniele d'Arienzo, 2023. "The social value of overreaction to information," CSEF Working Papers 690, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
    11. Tobias Lindhe & Jan Södersten, 2012. "The Norwegian shareholder tax reconsidered," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 19(3), pages 424-441, June.
    12. Bradford, David F, 2003. "Addressing the Transfer-Pricing Problem in an Origin-Basis X Tax," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 10(5), pages 591-610, September.
    13. Christoph Kuhn, 2018. "How local in time is the no-arbitrage property under capital gains taxes ?," Papers 1802.06386, arXiv.org, revised Sep 2018.
    14. Kiesewetter, Dirk & Lachmund, Andreas, 2004. "Wirkungen einer Abgeltungssteuer auf Investitionsentscheidungen und Kapitalstruktur von Unternehmen [Effects of a flat rate tax on investment decisions and capital structure of companies]," MPRA Paper 27177, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Peter Birch Sørensen, 2005. "Dual Income Taxation: Why and how?," CESifo Working Paper Series 1551, CESifo.
    16. Annette Alstadsæter & Martin Jacob & Wojciech Kopczuk & Kjetil Telle, 2016. "Accounting for Business Income in Measuring Top Income Shares: Integrated Accrual Approach Using Individual and Firm Data from Norway," NBER Working Papers 22888, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Peter Sørensen, 2005. "Neutral Taxation of Shareholder Income," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 12(6), pages 777-801, November.
    18. Siemers, Lars-H. R. & Zöller, Daniel, 2011. "Change-over within little scope: On the decision neutrality of recent tax reform proposals," MPRA Paper 27943, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. George R. Zodrow, 2019. "Should Capital Income Be Subject to Consumption-Based Taxation?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: George R Zodrow (ed.), TAXATION IN THEORY AND PRACTICE Selected Essays of George R. Zodrow, chapter 5, pages 131-168, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    20. Ey, 2015. "Experiences with cash-flow taxation and prospects. Final report," Taxation Papers 55, Directorate General Taxation and Customs Union, European Commission.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ntj:journl:v:56:y:2003:i:1:p:197-219. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: The University of Chicago Press (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.ntanet.org/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.