The aim with this essay is to research how changes in marginal taxation of capital, changes households’ investment behaviour. To be able to do so, the introduction of investment savings accounts, or ISK, in Sweden will be studied. This since the ISK can be considered a tax-subsidised investment form, and as such could provide insight of how the households change their investment patterns when their marginal tax of capital is reduced. To be able to assess whether this was in fact the case, the method difference-in-difference will be used. Due to many similarities in tax systems, Denmark is chosen as a reference group, to the treatment group Sweden. The result from the two difference-in-differences shows that the ISK taxation had increased the total value of the households’ stock ownership, but that no significant change in the number of private stock owners could be observed.

No / The authors present findings from the initial phase of an ongoing externally funded research project into senior executive perceptions of the impact of capital taxation upon unquoted companies incorporated in the United Kingdom. Open-ended interviews were conducted with the senior executives of six unquoted companies which are also multigenerational family businesses. The interviews guided the executives to explore the history of their company; the values and aspirations of the founding or owning family(ies); the impact of capital taxation regimes, previous and current, both on ownership and on management succession; and strategies being pursued. Using content analysis to identify key themes, the authors suggest that their findings indicate that capital taxation may have a major impact both on ownership and on management succession as well as on succession planning. However, the current capital tax regime in the United Kingdom is perceived to be more favourable than that of previous regimes and vis-aé-vis the regimes currently operating in most European countries. Capital taxation is not thought to influence strategic or operational decisions either positively or negatively. Companies use taxation-planning devices, frequently involving trusts, in order to reduce the actual burden of capital taxation falling upon individual shareholders at ownership succession. The present capital taxation regime, which includes gift relief and business asset taper relief within capital gains tax, and 100% business property relief within inheritance tax, eases succession planning. Business asset taper relief also facilitates shareholder exit strategies.

The effects of individual income taxation direct the way they choose to receive capital flows. The clientele effect suggests, investor preferences are affected by their individual taxation. A shareholder with high marginal tax will according to theory invest in stocks with low or no dividend yield, while individuals with low marginal tax opts to invest in stocks with high dividend yield. In this study we analyse how the implementation of the investeringssparkonto affects the dividend clientele theory. With our impact analysis we are able to show that Swedish individuals are able to receive dividends at a lower tax rate than before. We establish proof that tax rates have lowered for all income levels of the Swedish populations since the implementation 2012, where the largest percentage increase happened among the lower income levels. While the largest unit tax rate cut happened at the top. The investeringssparkonto has created a new scenario where the effective tax rate is lower than the traditional aktie och fonddepå, when the dividend yield is higher than the government bond rate increased by one percent. Lower effective dividend taxation amount to stockholders receiving a larger share of the distributed profit. This new scenario where all individuals are prone to choose higher dividend yields, reduced the relevancy of who the dividend policy is adjusted to. All dividend clienteles prefer the same policy. / Effekterna av privatpersoners inkomstbeskattning styr hur de väljer att få sina kapitalflöden. Klienteleffekten antyder att investerarens preferenser kommer att påverkas av deras privata beskattning. En aktieägare med hög marginalskatt ska enligt teorin dras till aktier i företag där utdelningen är låg eller obefintlig, medan personer med låg marginalskatt är intresserade av att äga aktier i bolag med höga aktieutdelningar. I denna studie undersöker vi hur införandet av investeringssparkontot påverkar de tidigare teorierna om utdelningsklientel. Vi kan med vår konsekvensanalys visa att de svenska privatpersonerna har möjlighet att ta emot utdelningar till en betydligt lägre skattesats än tidigare. Vi kan konstatera att skatten har sjunkit för samtliga inkomstnivåer sedan införandet av investeringssparkontot 2012, det gick att se att den största procentuella skillnaden skedde bland de lägre inkomst nivåerna, men den största skillnaden sett till procentenheter sker i toppen. Investeringssparkontot har medfört ett nytt scenario där den effektiva skatten är lägre än i en aktie och fonddepå, då direktavkastningen överstiger statslåneräntan ökat med en procentenhet. Lägre effektiv skatt på utdelningar innebär att ägarna får en större del av den utdelade vinsten. Detta nya scenario där alla privatpersoner har ett incitament till hög direktavkastning, gör det mindre relevant vem utdelningspolicyn anpassas till då alla “klientel” föredrar samma policy.

We study how attitudes to inheritance taxation are influenced by information about the role of inherited wealth in society. Using a randomized experiment in a register-linked Swedish survey, we find that informing individuals about the large aggregate importance of inherited wealth and its link to inequality of opportunity significantly increases the support for inheritance taxation. The effect is almost uniform across socio-economic groups and survives a battery of robustness tests. Changes in the perceived economic importance of inherited wealth and altered views on whether luck matters most for economic success appear to be the main driving factors behind the treatment effect. Our findings suggest that the low salience of inherited wealth could be one explanation behind the relatively marginalized role of inheritance taxation in developed economies. / Series: INEQ Working Paper Series

A new technology is a bold new combination of production factors that potentially yields a higher level of total factor productivity. The optimal combination of input factors is unknown when an innovation is pursued. A larger targeted innovation may require a greater change in the optimal combination of production factors employed and increases volatility alongside with economic growth. We show that economic policy can interfere in this relationship with by adjusting source based capital income taxes. / Series: Discussion Papers SFB International Tax Coordination

Die vorliegende Arbeit besteht aus vier Aufsätzen zum Thema Besteuerung, welche sich in drei Themenblöcke unterteilen lassen: Die ersten beiden Aufsätze dieser Arbeit (Maiterth/Chirvi 2015 sowie Chirvi 2019) widmen sich dem deutschen Ehegattensplitting, der dritte Beitrag (Chirvi/Maiterth 2019) behandelt die Besteuerung gesetzlicher Renten in Deutschland und der vierte Aufsatz (Chirvi/Schneider 2019) untersucht Präferenzen bzgl. der Besteuerung von Vermögen in den USA. Eine Aufteilung anhand der behandelten Steuerarten macht die Arbeit noch übersichtlicher: So behandeln die ersten drei Aufsätze jeweils Aspekte der Einkommensteuer, während sich der vierte Beitrag verschiedenen Arten der Vermögensbesteuerung widmet. Es lässt sich ergänzen, dass die Aufsätze zur Einkommensteuer sehr eng mit dem deutschen Steuerrecht verbunden sind. Sie beschäftigen sich mit existierenden Regelungen (§ 26 sowie 32a EStG zum Ehegattensplitting bzw. § 10 sowie 22 EStG zur Rentenbesteuerung) und deren Auswirkungen. Dies gilt insbesondere für die Beiträge Maiterth/Chirvi (2015), in dem ein Forschungs- und Rechtsprechungsüberblick zum Thema Ehegattensplitting geliefert wird, sowie Chirvi/Maiterth (2019), in dem eine potentielle Doppel- oder Minderbesteuerung gesetzlicher Renten durch das AltEinkG untersucht wird. Der Aufsatz Chirvi (2019) untersucht Arbeitsangebotswirkungen des Ehegattensplittings und ist daher etwas weniger eng mit dem deutschen Recht verknüpft, da sich zumindest ähnliche Regelungen auch in anderen Ländern finden. Der Beitrag zur Vermögensbesteuerung, Chirvi/Schneider (2019), untersucht dagegen Präferenzen in Bezug auf – bis auf die Nachlasssteuer („estate tax“) – nicht existierende Vermögensteuern in den USA. Zwei der Aufsätze wurden in der Zeitschrift Steuer und Wirtschaft publiziert, die anderen beiden wurden in der arqus Working-Paper-Reihe veröffentlicht. / This dissertation consists of four papers on taxation that can be divided into three different subject areas: The first and the second paper (Maiterth/Chirvi 2015 as well as Chirvi 2019) deal with the ‘income splitting’, i.e. the taxation of married couples in Germany. The third paper (Chirvi/Maiterth 2019) analyzes effects of a reform regarding the transition to downstream taxation of public pensions. Finally, the last paper (Chirvi/Schneider 2019) examines preferences for the taxation of wealth in the United States. While the first three papers analyze (the effects of) specific regulations within the German income tax code (income splitting in Art. 26 and 32a of the German income tax code; the taxation of public pensions in Art. 10 and 22 of German income tax code), the fourth essay is about partially hypothetical types of capital taxation. Maiterth/Chirvi (2015) review the literature on the topic in the areas of public economics, business taxation and tax law and compile arguments for and against the income splitting. As many researchers point out that the income splitting may lead to disincentives for married women to work, Chirvi (2019) empirically analyzes its labor supply effects based on a new approach. Chirvi/Maiterth (2019) evaluate whether the AltEinkG, a reform that lead to a successive transition to downstream taxation, results in under- or double taxation of public pensions in Germany. They develop a measure and subsequently estimate potential under- or double taxation based on official income tax data. Chirvi/Schneider (2019) are interested in preferences regarding capital taxation and conduct a survey-experiment on mTurk to reveal whether preferences depend on the type of tax and/or attributes of assets and personal characteristics. Two of these papers have already been published in the scientific journal Steuer und Wirtschaft, the others can be found in the arqus working-paper series.

L'objectiu d'aquesta tesi és analitzar com s'han de concebre les polítiques fiscals i monetàries en un context en què els polítics tenen problemes de credibilitat. Es desenvolupen metodologies i aplicacions per mostrar com diferents graus de credibilitat de les institucions polítiques afecten la determinació d'impostos, deute públic, instruments monetaris i, en general, els resultats econòmics. En el primer capítol - Loose commitment (Compromís Dèbil) -, s'introdueix una nova metodologia per resoldre problemes de política òptima tenint en compte que els polítics podrien no complir les seves promeses, i analitza els efectes de la credibilitat sobre la imposició sobre el capital i sobre el treball. El segon capítol - Political Disagreement Lack of Commitment and the Level of Debt (Desacord Polític, Falta de Compromís i el Nivell de Deute) - considera un cas en què la credibilitat es limitada per el fet d'haver-hi alternança entre polítics amb objectius diferents. En particular, es mostra com l'alternança política i la falta de compromís afecten el nivell de deute públic. Finalment, el tercer capítol - The Macroeconomic Effects of Unstable Monetary Policy Objectives (Els Efectes Macroeconòmics de la Inestabilitat dels Objectius de Política Monetària) - analitza com la possibilitat de canvis en els objectius influeixen en les decisions de política monetària. / El objetivo de esta tesis es analizar cómo se deben concebir las políticas fiscales y monetarias en un contexto en que los políticos tienen problemas de credibilidad. Se desarrollan metodologías y aplicaciones para mostrar cómo diferentes grados de credibilidad de las instituciones políticas afectan la determinación de impuestos, deuda pública, instrumentos monetarios y, en general, los resultados económicos. En el primer capítulo - Loose commitment (Compromiso Débil)-, se introduce una nueva metodología para resolver problemas de política óptima tomando en cuenta que los políticos podrían no cumplir con sus promesas, y analiza los efectos de la credibilidad sobre la imposición sobre el capital y el trabajo. El segundo capítulo - Political Disagreement Lack of Commitment and the Level of Debt (Desacuerdo Político, Falta de Compromiso y el Nivel de Deuda) - considera un caso en que la credibilidad está limitada por el hecho de que hay alternancia entre políticos con distintos objetivos. En particular, se muestra cómo la alternancia política y la falta de compromiso afectan el nivel de deuda pública. Por último, el tercer capítulo - The Macroeconomic Effects of Unstable Monetary Policy Objectives (Los Efectos Macroeconómicos de la Inestabilidad de los Objetivos de Política Monetaria) - analiza cómo la posibilidad de cambios en los objetivos influye en las decisiones de política monetaria. / The purpose of this thesis is to analyze how fiscal and monetary policies should be designed in a context where policymakers have credibility problems. Methodologies and applications are developed to show how different degrees of policymakers' credibility affect the determination of policy choices, such as taxes or monetary instruments, and more generally the economic outcomes.The first chapter - Loose Commitment -, introduces a new methodology to solve optimal policy problems taking into account that policymakers may not fulfill their promises, and analyzes the effects of policymakers' commitment on capital and labor taxation. The second chapter - Political Disagreement, Lack of Commitment and the Level of Debt - considers a case where commitment is limited by the fact that policymakers with different objectives alternate in office. In particular, it is shown how lack of commitment and political turnover affect the level of public debt. Finally, the third chapter - The Macroeconomic Effects of Unstable Monetary Policy Objectives - analyzes how the possibility of changes in policy objectives influences monetary policy choices.