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Business Owners and Income-Shifting between Tax Bases: Empirical Evidence from a Finnish Tax Reform

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  • Jarkko Harju
  • Tuomas Matikka

Abstract

This study examines the extent of income-shifting between tax bases among the owners of privately held businesses. The dual income tax system in Finland offers noticeable incentives for income-shifting between wages and dividends for business owners. The dividend tax reform of 2005 enables us to study how this particular form of tax avoidance reacts to an exogenous change in tax rates. Our results support highly active income-shifting behavior. We find that the income-shifting effect is homogeneous across different owners and firms. However, we find that the size of the tax incentive affects the size of the response, indicating that costs related to income-shifting are important.

Suggested Citation

  • Jarkko Harju & Tuomas Matikka, 2014. "Business Owners and Income-Shifting between Tax Bases: Empirical Evidence from a Finnish Tax Reform," CESifo Working Paper Series 5090, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_5090
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    6. Jukka Pirttilä & Håkan Selin, 2011. "Income Shifting within a Dual Income Tax System: Evidence from the Finnish Tax Reform of 1993," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 113(1), pages 120-144, March.
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    Cited by:

    1. Pablo Gutierrez Cubillos, 2022. "Dividend tax credits and the elasticity of taxable income: evidence from small businesses," Working Papers 630, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    business owners; income-shifting; income taxation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm

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