How to tax capital in a globalized world? Lessons from population-wide administrative data

There is growing concern about the practicality of taxing capital in a globalized world. Half of the world's foreign direct investments are routed through offshore tax havens.

prosjekt

About/Aims

Background

In April 2016, The Panama Papers showed that rich individuals routinely use shell companies in tax havens to avoid or evade taxes.

More about the project

Still, little is known about who evades capital taxes, why, and to which extent. Current estimates on offshore tax evasion are based on aggregate data.

We combine Scandinavian administrative micro data with information from Swiss Leaks, Panama Papers, voluntary disclosure of hidden offshore wealth, and random audits to provide new insights in the anatomy of capital tax evasion and how tax evasion varies across the wealth distribution. By combining our results with aggregate data, we can construct revised estimates of income and wealth inequality all over the world, when taking into account income and wealth that is unreported to tax authorities. We also aim at providing credible causal es timates of how capital taxation affects international tax evasion.

Photo

Bruce Rolff, Shutterstock

News/Findings

Reviews

Publications

Working papers:

Ludvig Wier, Thomas Tørsløv and Gabriel Zucman: "The Missing Profits of Nations", NBER working paper 24701, August 2018. [Appendix & data webpage]. “Tax evasion and tax avoidance”

Annette Alstadsæter, Niels Johannesen and Gabriel Zucman: "Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance", working paper, August 2018.

Published peer-reviewed papers:

Annette Alstadsæter, Niels Johannesen and Gabriel Zucman: "Who Owns the Wealth in Tax Havens? Macro Evidence and Implications for Global Inequality ", Journal of Public Economics, 2018, 162: 89-100.

Popular science article:

Annette Alstadsæter, Niels Johannesen, and Gabriel Zucman: "Tax evasion and inequality", VoxEU, May 9, 2018.

Thomas Tørsløv, Ludvig Wier, and Gabriel Zucman: "The missing profits of nations", VoxEU, July 23, 2018.

Annette Alstadsæter, Niels Johannesen, and Gabriel Zucman: "What do tax havens cost in terms of lost tax revenue?" In "Lifting the Veil of Secrecy. Perspectives on International Taxation and Capital flight from Africa", Eds. Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, Sigrid Klæboe Jacobsen, Peter Henriksen Ringstad, Honest Prosper Ngowi, Chr. Michelsen Institute 2017, 54-56.

Jannick Damgaard, Thomas Elkjaer and Niels Johannesen, "Piercing the Veil". IMF, June 2018.

Op-eds:

Annette Alstadsæter: "Formuesskattens fortreffelighet", Dagens Næringsliv, March 22, 2017.

Annette Alstadsæter, Niels Johannesen, and Gabriel Zucman: "Tax evaders exposed: why the super-rich are even richer than we thought", The Guardian, June 14, 2017.

Annette Alstadsæter: "Superrike skattesnytarar", Dagens Næringsliv, July 4, 2017, p3.

Annette Alstadsæter: "Faktabaserte fake news?", Dagens Næringsliv, September 5, 2017, p4.

Gabriel Zucman: "How Corporations and the Wealthy Avoid Taxes (and How to Stop Them)".The New York Times, November 10, 2017.

Gabriel Zucman: "The desperate inequality behind global tax dodging". The Guardian, November 8, 2017.

Niels Johannesen: "Amnesti kan få svindlere ud af busken". Politiken, Nov 12, 2017, Page 6.

Gabriel Zucman: "La lógica del libre comercio no justifica el robo de los paraísos fiscales", El Confidencial, Novemnber 7, 2017

Gabriel Zucman: "Motor der Ungleichheit". Süddeutsche Zeitung, November 6, 2017.

Gabriel Zucman: "40 % des profits des multinationales sont délocalisés dans les paradis fiscaux ", Le Monde, November 7, 2017

Gabriel Zucman: "Antriebsfeder der globalen Ungleichheit". Der Freitag, November 8, 2017.

Gabriel Zucman: ”Den fruktansvärda ojämlikheten bakom global skatteflykt”, ETC, November 19, 2017.

Annette Alstadsæter: "Tre triks mot skattetriksing", Dagens Næringsliv, Page 3, February 20, 2018.

Annette Alstadsæter: "Kva er eit skatteparadis?", Dagens Næringsliv, Page 3, April 10, 2018.

Gabriel Zucman: "If Ronaldo Can’t Beat Uruguay, the Least He Can Do Is Pay Taxes", New York Times, July 3, 2018.

Others:

Gabriel Zucman: "La richesse cachée des nations. Enqête sur les paradis fiscaux". Les Leçons des Panama Papers. October 2017.

Annette Alstadsæter: "Vegen til skatteparadis: følg pengane", In: Årsmelding 2016, Handelshøyskolen, NMBU, 2017, 13-14.

In media:

Was uns Steuerflucht kostet. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 27. juni 2018.

Skatteparadisene vokser. Aftenposten, 28. juni 2018.

Multinationals move $16bn from Australia to tax havens each year. The Guardian, 19. juni 2018.

Tax Havens Blunt Impact of Corporate Tax Cut, Economists Say. The New York Times, 10. juni 2018.

The "Paradise Papers" leak is shocking but little will change. The Washington Post, 7. november 2017.

"40% des profits des multinationales sont délocalisés dans les paradis fiscaux". Le Monde, 7. november 2018.

Events

Dialogseminar med Nærings- og fiskeridepartementet, Mai, 2, 2018. With Annette Alstadsæter and Knut Einiar Rosendhal.

Seminar with NORAD on "Hidden Wealth in Tax Havens - extent and distribution", NMBU, April 16, 2018. Organized by Annette Alstadsæter.

International workshop on "Tax evasion, tax avoidance, and inequality", Copenhagen, October 27-28, 2017. Organized by Annette Alstadsæter, Niels Johannesen and Gabriel Zucman.

Seminar on "Hidden Wealth in Tax Havens", NMBU, October 25, 2017. With Gabriel Zucman and Tax Director Hans Christian Holte.

Researchers

Project manager