Taxing Wealth: Evidence from Switzerland

38 Pages Posted: 26 Jul 2016

See all articles by Marius Brülhart

Marius Brülhart

University of Lausanne - School of Economics and Business Administration (HEC-Lausanne)

Jonathan Gruber

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Department of Economics; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Matthias Krapf

University of Lausanne

Kurt Schmidheiny

Universität Basel

Multiple version iconThere are 3 versions of this paper

Date Written: June 29, 2016

Abstract

We study the effects of wealth taxation on reported wealth. Our analysis is based on data for Switzerland, which has the highest rate of annual wealth taxation in the developed world. While the wealth tax base is defined at the federal level, tax rates vary considerably across locations and over time. We use aggregate data on wealth holdings by canton and individual-level data for the canton of Bern. Our estimated behavioral elasticities substantially exceed those of the taxable income literature. We also find that taxpayers bunch below the tax threshold, that observed responses are driven by changes in wealth holdings rather than mobility, and that financial wealth is somewhat more responsive than non-financial wealth.

Keywords: wealth taxation, behavioral responses, Switzerland

JEL Classification: H630, H730

Suggested Citation

Brulhart, Marius and Gruber, Jonathan and Krapf, Matthias and Schmidheiny, Kurt, Taxing Wealth: Evidence from Switzerland (June 29, 2016). CESifo Working Paper Series No. 5966, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2814468 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2814468

Marius Brulhart

University of Lausanne - School of Economics and Business Administration (HEC-Lausanne) ( email )

Unil Dorigny, Batiment Internef
Lausanne, 1015
Switzerland
+41 21 692 3471 (Phone)
+41 21 692 3365 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.hec.unil.ch/mbrulhar/

Jonathan Gruber

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Department of Economics ( email )

50 Memorial Drive
Room E52-355
Cambridge, MA 02142
United States
617-253-8892 (Phone)
617-253-1330 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://web.mit.edu/gruberj/www/

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Matthias Krapf

University of Lausanne ( email )

Quartier Chambronne
Lausanne, Vaud CH-1015
Switzerland

Kurt Schmidheiny (Contact Author)

Universität Basel ( email )

Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät
Peter Merian-Weg 6
Basel, CH-4002
Switzerland

HOME PAGE: http://wwz.unibas.ch/schmidheiny/

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