Calendrier du 12 juin 2018
Paris Trade Seminar
Du 12/06/2018 de 14:30 à 16:00
PSE, 48 boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris - salle R2-21
REDDING S. (Princeton)
Accounting for Trade Patterns
écrit avec David E. Weinstein Columbia University and NBER
Applied Economics Lunch Seminar
Du 12/06/2018 de 12:30 à 13:30
R2-01, Campus Jourdan, 48 boulevard Jourdan, 75014 Paris
LARDEUX Raphael (CRED PARIS 2)
Who Understands The French Income Tax ? Bunching Where Tax Liabilities Start
Lack of tax transparency may strongly impact taxpayers’ behavior. This pa-
per disentangles responses to incentives from attention to taxes at the level where
French income tax liabilities start. When reporting their earnings, tax filers may
be confused between two potential thresholds: the true Tax Collection Threshold
(TCT), a notch, and a wrong Taxation Threshold (TT), which is a kink. Using
a comprehensive dataset on individual income tax returns from 2008 to 2015, I
highlight significant bunching in the taxable income distribution at both thresholds.
Within a model of tax misperception, I estimate that taxpayers are far from paying
full attention to the income tax system, yet display strong reactions to the marginal
tax rate they perceive. This framework can account for behavioral responses to a
rise in the virtual marginal tax rate at the wrong threshold and may prove useful to
detect policies improving attention to taxes. Contrasting hard-copy and online tax
filers, the misperception model reveals a better understanding of the tax system by
the latter.