Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Title: Wealth Taxation: An Overview of the Issues
Author-Name: Alan D. Viard
Abstract: Recent wealth tax proposals put forward by Democratic presidential
  candidates Senator Elizabeth Warren and Senator Bernie Sanders would
  impose an annual tax on the net worth of the wealthiest Americans. The
  proposed wealth tax rates are in the range of 2 to 8 percent per year.
  Although those tax rates might appear low, they are equivalent to high
  income tax rates because they are levied on an annual basis on a stock
  of wealth. Several European countries adopted wealth taxes, but many
  later repealed them due to administrative and compliance challenges,
  disappointing revenue yields, and emigration.
  
  Viard argues that a wealth tax in the U.S. would pose administrative and
  constitutional challenges. As an economic matter, such a tax would
  decrease savings and investment, thereby lowering the capital stock,
  making workers less productive, and slowing wage growth. The potential
  revenue that would be gained is unclear. To the extent that policymakers
  wish to increase the progressivity of the tax code, many reforms could
  be made to the existing tax system, including eliminating provisions in
  the current tax code that allow unrealized capital gains to escape
  taxation.
Creation-Date: 2019-11-01
Keywords: tax policy, inequality, wealth tax
File-URL: https://www.economicstrategygroup.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/Wealth-Taxation-An-Overview-of-the-Issues.pdf
File-Format: Application/PDF
Handle: RePEc:cxx:wpaper:wealth-taxation-an-overview-of-the-issues