The Abolition of Wealth Transfer Taxes: Lessons from Canada, Australia and New Zealand (original) (raw)
Related papers
Taxing Inherited Wealth: A Philosophical Argument
The Canadian Journal of Law and Jurisprudence, 1993
Tax reform is, as it should be, a major issue on the political agenda. Wealth taxation should form part of the basis of that agenda if any of the goals, particularly that of equality of opportunity, which we cherish as a civilized and democratic society, are to be realized. Maureen A. Maloney, “Distributive Justice: That is the Wealth Tax Issue,” (1988) 20 Ottawa L. Rev. 601 at 635. After two decades of decline and indifference in the Anglo-American world, the subject of taxing inherited wealth has recently begun to resurface. In the past five years, the number of books and articles on the topic has shown a noticeable increase. And in Ontario, Canada’s most populous and industrialized province, the unexpected election of the New Democratic Party in September 1991, promising to reintroduce a provincial succession duty, has put the issue back on the political agenda.
Wealth transfer taxation: an empirical investigation
International Tax and Public Finance, 2014
We present an empirical model of wealth transfer taxation in the revenue systems of the G7 countries-Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, and the US-over the period from 1965 to 2009. Our model emphasizes the influences of population aging and of the stock of household wealth in an explanation of the past and likely future of this tax source. Simulations with the model using U.N. demographic projections and projections of household wealth suggest that even in France and Germany where reliance on wealth transfer taxation has been increasing for part of the period studied, wealth transfer taxes can be expected to wither away as population aging deepens over the next two decades. Our results indicate that recent tax designs that rely upon the taxation of wealth transfers to preserve equity in the face of declining taxation of capital incomes may be, in this respect, politically infeasible for Wealth transfer taxation 721 the foreseeable future. We conclude by using the case of wealth transfer taxation to raise the general question of the extent to which the consistency of a proposed reform with expected political equilibria ought to play a role in the design of a normative policy blueprint.
Alternatives to the Gift and Estate Tax
Political Economy - Development: Fiscal & Monetary Policy eJournal, 2016
Following the near death experience of the federal gift and estate tax in 2010, the hundredth anniversary of the tax represents an ideal moment to reflect on the role of this tax and whether an alternative approach might be more desirable and sustainable. This Article examines four prominent alternatives to the current tax: an annual wealth tax, taxing unrealized gains at death, including gifts and inheritances in income, and a lifetime accessions tax that would apply to the cumulative value of gifts and inheritances received by individuals over their lifetimes. In order to assess these alternatives, the Article reconsiders the reasons for taxing wealth transfers, arguing that the primary purpose of a wealth transfer tax is not to raise revenue or enhance progressivity, but to regulate intergenerational transfers of wealth in order to reduce unearned concentrations of wealth and power and promote fair equality of opportunity. On this basis, it argues that a lifetime accessions tax i...
The economics of wealth transfer tax
economics, 2010
This paper discusses the merits of wealth transfer taxation on both efficiency and equity grounds. It first deals with the popular debate that is dominated by American economists. This debate concerns the US estate tax, which is one, among many, types of wealth transfer tax. After addressing the main issues prevailing in this debate and discussing the lack of popular support for such tax, the paper adopts a more theoretical approach to explore the pluses and the minuses of a wealth transfer tax. The main point is that the desirability of a wealth transfer tax depends on the motives of wealth accumulation and transmission.
Choosing Between an Income Tax and a Wealth Transfer Tax
National Tax Journal, 2001
This paper traces the implications of replacing the estate tax with a basis carry over regime under the income tax. Such changes are likely to level the playing field and generally extend uniform tax treatment to gifts and bequests, spousal bequests and bequests to children, gains realized during life and those held at death, and deaths in community property versus non-community property states, among others. Relative to current law, these changes may have the effect of reducing spousal bequests in favor of direct transfers to the children, and discouraging lifetime gifts in favor of bequests as well as borrowing to finance consumption.
Replacing the Estate Tax with a Re-Imagined Accessions Tax
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2008
Part of the Law Commons This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Law Journals at UC Hastings Scholarship Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Hastings Law Journal by an authorized editor of UC Hastings Scholarship Repository.
Boston College Law Review, 2016
INTRODUCTIONAlthough this author personally favors replacing the federal wealth transfer (gift/estate/generation-skipping) taxes with an accessions tax,1 Congress has been reluctant to abandon existing tax systems.2 Accordingly, a more realistic tack is to address reform of current law. The tax aim of a wealth transfer tax is to raise some revenue with reasonable efficiency and minimal economic distortion. The non-tax aim is to curb undue accumulations of unearned, gratuitously received wealth by individuals. Since about 1980, the wealth transfer taxes have not done a very good job in terms of their aims. The post-1980 period has seen an increase in wealth inequalities among classes, especially at the very top,3 that has coincided with a drastic weakening of the wealth transfer taxes-both by legislation4 and the failure to address loopholes that are exploited by transactions that make little or no sense apart from tax avoidance.5 That the wealth transfer tax is barely alive politica...
The Federal Estate Tax: History, Law, and Economics
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2011
This manuscript is a work in progress, and is made available given the timeliness of the subject. It greatly benefitted from the research assistance of Parisa Maneghi and Siobhan O'Keefe. It is a companion to my earlier "The Federal Gift Tax: History, law, and Economics" manuscript which exclusively focused on the gift tax. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the US Department of the Treasury. Comments, corrections, and feedback are greatly appreciated.