Modelling Personal Income Taxation in Spain:Revenue Elasticities and Regional Comparisons

This paper derives analytical expressions for the revenue elasticity of the Spanish personal income tax system, as applied to tax units and in aggregate. This is complicated by the schedular nature of the system, and the role of central and regional governments, along with the existence of a range of tax credits and eligible expenditures and deductions. Empirical estimates are obtained using a cros -sectional dataset which enables a number of important ancillary elasticities (relating to allowances and tax credits, and different income sources) to be estimated. It was found that there is considerable variation among tax units in the revenue elasticity, with highly (positively) skewed distributions. The nature of the distributions varies among regions of Spain, and the aggregate elasticities for each region were found to display some variation associated with income distribution differences. The national aggregate is found to be around 1.3. The paper also derives aggregate tax revenue as a function of characteristics of the distribution of taxable income in each region. This allows the sources of revenue differences among regions to be identified.

Revenue-Maximising Tax Rates in Personal Income Taxation in the Presence of Consumption Taxes: A note

This note computes revenue-maximising tax rates in personal income taxes in the presence of consumption taxes. It finds that the traditional Laffer analysis, which neglects the effects of marginal tax rates on consumption, overestimates the magnitude of revenue-maximising tax rates. The bias caused by this oversight is computed

A proposal to estimate human capital depreciation: some evidence for Spain

This article formulates an empirical model for salary determination, which permits the identification of the depreciation rate of the stock of professional qualifications. The analysis is implemented using the 1994 European Community Household Panel data referring to Spanish salaried males. The depreciation rate of the stock of qualifications is estimated at a narrow interval centred at 1%. Empirical evidence also suggests that although the depreciation rate does not vary according to the level of education, it does so depending on unemployment spells endured by the worker in recent years and on whether the worker has undertaken training courses.Human capital, depreciation, experience-earnings profiles

A full-fledged analytical model for the Laffer curve in personal income taxation

The standard approach to evaluate the Laffer curve of personal income taxation focuses on the impact on income tax revenue alone. However, this is an incomplete depiction of reality, as income tax rate changes also affect revenue collection from other taxes -i.e. consumption taxes and social security contributions. In addition, to the extent that administration and compliance costs correlate with tax rates, the Laffer curve should also consider this correlation. This paper develops a complete microeconomic model for the Laffer curve of personal income tax, taking into account all these omissions. Results confirm that these omissions generate the false illusion of a Laffer curve with a higher-than-real revenue maximum and a narrower prohibitive zone than exists in reality

El Impuesto sobre las Ventas Minoristas de Determinados Hidrocarburos. Una evaluación de sus efectos económicos

En enero de 2002 entró en vigor en España el nuevo Impuesto sobre las Ventas Minoristas de Determinados Hidrocarburos. Este impuesto, cuya recaudación está cedida a la Comunidades Autónomas, se destinará fundamentalmente a la financiación de gastos de naturaleza sanitaria. El objetivo del presente trabajo es evaluar los efectos recaudatorios, distributivos y de bienestar que genera dicha medida fiscal. Los resultados indican que el nuevo impuesto aumenta en 1,2849 por 100 la recaudación conjunta de IVA y accisas. Asimismo, la reforma tiene un efecto sobre la desigualdad prácticamente despreciable, aunque reduce ligeramente el bienestar global de los hogares al generar pequeños costes de eficiencia. Classification-JEL : H24, H31.accisas, recaudación, bienestar, distribución, microsimulación

IMPOSICIÓN MARGINAL EFECTIVA SOBRE EL FACTOR TRABAJO: BREVE NOTA METODOLÓGICA Y COMPARACIÓN INTERNACIONAL

The aim of this paper is to compare, at an international level, the average tax liabilities on the use of labour as a production factor among a bunch of OECD country members. The methodology is that of marginal effective tax rates. Results on Great Britain, Sweden, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Japan, United States and Spain are reported for period 1981-1998. Classification-JEL : H21, H24, H25marginal effective taxation, labour supply

Eficacia de los incentivos fiscales a la inversión en I+D en España en los años noventa*

Este trabajo analiza la eficacia de los incentivos fiscales a la inversión en I+D en España. Para ello se utiliza una muestra de empresas manufactureras referida al período 1990 a 2001. Los resultados muestran que el crédito fiscal, y en menor medida las amortizaciones, son instrumentos adecuados para reducir el precio de la I+D. Sin embargo, la respuesta de la inversión a tales variaciones en precio es moderada ya que las elasticidades oscilan entre -0,98 y -1,01. Asimismo, cada unidad monetaria adicional de gasto fiscal genera entre 1,24 y 1,26 unidades monetarias de inversión bruta. Por último, los resultados indican que la relación entre activos fijos productivos e I+D es muy débil.I+D, incentivos fiscales, elasticidad, coste-eficacia

Personal Income Tax Reforms and the Elasticity of Reported Income to Marginal Tax Rates: An Empirical Analysis Applied to Spain

This paper shows the utility of the elasticity of reported income to assess tax reforms in detail from the perspectives of tax revenue and well-being. We provide evidence of the value of the elasticity of reported income in Spain given the variations in marginal rates of the Personal Income Tax. The mean value of this parameter for the entire Spanish territory is 1,541. Nevertheless, we confirm the existence of considerable heterogeneity in the value of this elasticity depending on taxpayers’ characteristics. Based on these estimated elasticities, we make a detailed assessment of the impact of the recent increase in marginal tax rates that Spain approved in 2012

Determinants of the Spanish housing market over three decades and three booms: Long run supply and demand elasticities

This paper offers a quantitative analysis of housing supply and demand in Spain. To this end, it formulates a model in line with the traditional models of the literature. Using Spanish data for the period 1975 to 2009, reduced form and structural models are estimated. The results obtained show that faced with situations of disequilibrium prices adjust more rapidly than stock. Similarly, they demonstrate that demand shows low sensitivity to variations in prices and real interest rates. By contrast, it is highly sensitive to demographic changes and the evolution of the labor market. The evidence confirms that permanent income has greater weight than prices as a determinant of demand. Moreover, supply is very sensitive to variations in prices and interest rates

Is it environmentally desirable to encourage public transport through taxes? Evidence for Spanish households

This research received financial support from URJC-CM-2007-CSH-1738, Eco 2012-32299 del Plan Nacional de I+D+i and CCG08-URJC/HUM-3562. Jose Felix Sanz-Sanz appreciates the funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through [grant number SEJ2006-04444] and from Universidad Complutense through Research Group [grant number 940392].There are studies that suggests that the use of environmental taxes to promote the consumption of "clean goods" could have unwanted effects in that it leads to the consumption of "dirty goods". The results will depend on the multiple effects of cross-price elasticities. This paper illustrates the above hypothesis as applied to earth transport consumption in Spanish households. Using microdata for Spanish households, we firstly estimate an AIDS model for 16 groups of goods and services. And secondly simulate two alternative revenue-neutral tax reforms in which the relative price of public transport, in terms of private transport, is reduced between 1 and 2%. The results confirm Sandmo's hypothesis. With both reforms, fuel consumption (as measure of private transport use) increases and public transport consumption decreases. The consequence in each case is a net increase in CO2 emissions per household. So, fiscal reforms of this kind do not seem to be effective to improve the environmental performance of passengers earth transport sector in Spain