Author: Philip Lane

The Department of Finance answered an Oireachtas question about the distribution of tax units (ie individuals or couples filing jointly) during the week with the following information

All income earners for Income Tax Year 2015 (provisional)

Range of Gross Income – € Number of Income Earners
0 to 9,000 368,585
9,001 to 12,000 107,297
12,001 to 15,000 116,836
15,001 to 20,000 213,112
20,001 to 25,000 216,626
25,001 to 30,000 201,085
30,001 to 40,000 324,506
40,001 to 50,000 229,709
50,001 to 60,000 157,805
60,001 to 70,000 107,045
70,001 to 80,000 77,378
80,001 to 100,000 91,301
100,001 to 120,000 47,956
120,001 to 150,000 34,809
150,001 to 200,000 22,512
Over 200,001 24,642
Total 2,341,203
The figures are estimates from the Revenue tax-forecasting model using actual data for the year 2012 adjusted as necessary for income, self-employment and employment trends in the interim. These are, therefore, provisional and may be revised. It should also be noted that a married couple or civil partnership that has elected or has been deemed to have elected for joint assessment is counted as one tax unit.

The Riksbank and IMF recently organised a conference on macroprudential policy – programme here.

A presentation on “Implementing Limits on LTVs and DTIs: A Cross Country View” by Luis Jacome and Srobona Mitra of the IMF is here.

This new Bank of England primer is helpful in the context of the current concerns about the funding costs facing Irish banks – here.

NY Times article with interesting graphics here.

The Fall 2014 issue of the Journal of Economic Perspectives is free to download here.

Especially topical are:

Zucman, Gabriel. 2014. “Taxing across Borders: Tracking Personal Wealth and Corporate Profits” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 28(4): 121-48.

Abstract:

This article attempts to estimate the magnitude of corporate tax avoidance and personal tax evasion through offshore tax havens. US corporations book 20 percent of their profits in tax havens, a tenfold increase since the 1980; their effective tax rate has declined from 30 to 20 percent over the last 15 years, and about two-thirds of this decline can be attributed to increased international tax avoidance. Globally, 8 percent of the world’s personal financial wealth is held offshore, costing more than $200 billion to governments every year. Despite ambitious policy initiatives, profit shifting to tax havens and offshore wealth are rising. I discuss the recent proposals made to address these issues, and I argue that the main objective should be to create a world financial registry.

Kleven, Henrik Jacobsen. 2014. “How Can Scandinavians Tax So Much?” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 28(4): 77-98.

Abstract:
American visitors to Scandinavian countries are often puzzled by what they observe: despite large income redistribution through distortionary taxes and transfers, these are very high-income countries. They rank among the highest in the world in terms of income per capita, as well as most other economic and social outcomes. The economic and social success of Scandinavia poses important questions for economics and for those arguing against large redistribution based on its supposedly detrimental effect on economic growth and welfare. How can Scandinavian countries raise large amounts of tax revenue for redistribution and social insurance while maintaining some of the strongest economic outcomes in the world? Combining micro and macro evidence, this paper identifies three policies that can help explain this apparent anomaly: the coverage of third-party information reporting (ensuring a low level of tax evasion), the broadness of tax bases (ensuring a low level of tax avoidance), and the strong subsidization of goods that are complementary to working (ensuring a high level of labor force participation). The paper also presents descriptive evidence on a variety of social and cultural indicators that may help in explaining the economic and social success of Scandinavia.