My paper on #taxevasion and #inequality in Spain is online! I estimate evasion in the Spanish income tax in the early 2000s (2001-04), with microdata from @IEF_ES. Here are some main points: (1/6)
Evasion in capital incomes was very high, especially for financial flows and at the top of the income distribution. The top ten percent of the taxpayers are estimated to report 50-60% of their real incomes of this sort. (2/6)
Therefore, fraud had a regressive impact: the rich evaded more, making the tax less progressive and redistributive than it otherwise would have been. For example, evasion reduced the redistributive impact of the tax by 33% in 2001. (3/6)
Inequality was thus higher than it looks like in tax data: top income shares should be adjusted by 2-3.5 percentage points, Gini indices (post-tax income) by 4-5%. Similar biases, of varying magnitudes, could exist in other countries / time periods! (4/6)
To obtain these estimates, I extended the Feldman-Slemrod model (2008), to adjust for sample selection and allow for differences between income levels. Again thanks to @aestellermore and @alfoherranz for putting up with the process. (5/6)
My results are consistent with recent research by @annette_als and @gabriel_zucman! (with better data!) Here is the paper for those interested: emerald.com/insight/conten… (6/6)
