Local Tax Rates Research Articles

Inter-municipal cooperation and local taxation

This paper studies how inter-municipal cooperation, through the creation of a new jurisdictional tier with transferred competencies and tax powers, affects the four main direct local tax rates (business tax, residence tax, property tax on developed land, property tax on undeveloped land) in France. We use an instrumented difference-in-differences method with an original, exhaustive panel of 36,530 French municipalities over the 1994–2010 period. Our estimation results show that inter-municipal cooperation led to an increase in the four (municipal plus inter-municipal) tax rates, which accounts for 35% of the increase observed by the taxpayer on average. Tax increases are greater for the four tax rates when a tax regime consisting in sharing tax-bases between municipal and inter-municipal governments has been adopted. As for municipal tax rates alone, the smaller the municipality, the sharper their decrease. Finally, the heterogeneity of the youth share of the population between municipalities is a key driver of the extent to which the impact of inter-municipal cooperation differs across municipalities.

The Incentive Effects of the Minnesota Fiscal Disparities Program on Tax Policy in Minnesota

In this work, we provide a theoretical analysis and empirical evidence of the incentive effects of the tax base sharing program on property tax rates set by municipalities in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. We identify two incentive effects generated by this program: the equalization base effect and the revenue matching effect, and test their combined impact on local property tax rates. Our empirical analysis shows that cities and townships respond to the combined impact of these two effects by raising their property tax rates while counties and school districts do not.

Strategic public policy around population thresholds

Political economists have long maintained that politicians respond to both (re-)election and financial incentives. This article contributes to the latter literature by analysing whether, when and how local office-holders respond to the economic incentives embedded in exogenously imposed population thresholds leading to an increased number and remuneration of local politicians. Building on insights from the urban economics and public finance literatures, we argue that local politicians may strategically adjust fiscal and housing policies to stimulate in-migration when approaching a population threshold where their remuneration increases. Using data from all 589 Belgian municipalities over the period 1977–2016, our results confirm that approaching important population thresholds causes lower local tax rates and the granting of additional building permits (particularly for apartments). These policy changes occur early in the election cycle and, at least for housing policy, are restricted to incumbent mayors themselves expecting to benefit from crossing the population threshold.

Tax-induced mobility: Evidence from a foreigners' tax scheme in Switzerland

We study location choice and residential mobility responses to local income taxes exploiting a special tax regime which applies to foreign employees residing in Switzerland. The institutional setting used generates a deterministic duration threshold at 5 years of stay in the country, at which the local tax rates an individual faces simultaneously change in all municipalities. We exploit this exogenous variation by applying a fuzzy regression discontinuity design to merged survey and administrative individual-level data. A dynamic location choice model allows us to derive testable hypotheses of individuals' location choices and mobility decisions. Our estimated treatment effects provide causal evidence for tax-induced residential choices and tax induced intra-national mobility.

The Tax-rate Elasticity of Local Business Profits

AbstractLocal business profits respond to local business tax (LBT) rates that vary across municipalities. We estimate that a 1% increase in the LBT rate decreases the LBT base by 0.45%, based on the universe of German LBT return files, which include corporations and unincorporated businesses. However, the fiscal equalization scheme largely compensates municipalities for the loss in the LBT base when they increase the LBT rate. Our estimates suggest that using tax revenue data instead of tax return data, as commonly done in the literature, results in a significant bias of the elasticity away from zero.

Who Works Longer – and Why? Regional and Individual Characteristics in the Timing of Retirement

AbstractWho works longer – and why? This paper investigates the characteristics of people that stay longer in the workforce, even beyond the time they are eligible to retire. In our regional analysis, we use an 11‐year balanced panel of 290 Swedish regions. In the individual analysis, we use a large individual level panel to apply Cox proportional hazard estimates on ‘risk’ of entering retirement. Our results show a large gender difference: women tend to retire earlier than men. Between employees and entrepreneurs, entrepreneurs retire later. People in larger regions tend to retire later. Higher house prices, and the share of small firms in a region correlate with a lower likelihood of retirement. The local tax rate and the share of blue‐collar workers in a region is significantly related to lower retirement age. A high average wage, commuting intensity, and high human capital in a region is associated with later retirement.

Local sales taxes, employment, and tax competition

Most analysis of the economic impacts of sales taxes does not include local taxes, despite the fact that they account for one-fifth of all sales tax collections and vary widely across states. This paper addresses that omission, estimating the effect of sales taxes on employment at state borders using county-level quarterly data and a newly developed data set of local county tax rates. The findings indicate that sales tax increases, relative to cross-border neighbors, lead to losses of employment, as well as payroll and hiring, but these effects are only found in counties with large shares of residents working in another state. The employment effects are also likely to be relatively short-lived, as they occur in the period before tax competition occurs and competitive jurisdictions are able to strategically respond and minimize cross-border tax differentials. Comparing estimates of sales tax effects with and without local county sales taxes show that omitting county taxes does not lead to meaningfully different estimates.

Brownfields Remediation: Impact on Local Residential Property Tax Revenue

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Brownfields Program provides grants to assess and clean up brownfields. There are few studies that estimate tax revenue impacts from cleanup beyond those generated directly from within the remediated site’s property lines. This study estimates the increased residential property tax revenue attributable to brownfields cleanup at 48 sites remediated between 2004 and 2011 under the EPA Brownfields Cleanup Grants Program. Findings from a previous study of a 5% to 15.2% property value increase following cleanup at these sites are applied to the assessed values of nearby residential properties along with local tax laws, assessment ratios, and rates to estimate tax revenue gained as a result of brownfields cleanup. The estimated increase in residential property tax revenue for a single tax year from remediating 48 brownfields properties was between $29 million and $97 million (2014 USD).

RESPONSIVENESS OF INCOME TO LOCAL INCOME TAXES: EVIDENCE FROM INDIANA

This paper examines the extent to which incomes respond to changes in county level income taxes, using data from the Indiana Department of Revenue on county-level taxable incomes that span 1997–2013, matched to data on local income tax rates and other county characteristics. Fixed effects models show that county income tax rates have little impact on the county level aggregate taxable income. Changes in competitor tax rates, with competitors identified based on contiguity, similarity in population size, and migration patterns, do not affect county taxable income either. Overall, taxpayers are unresponsive to small changes in local income tax rates.

The effect of direct democracy on the level and structure of local taxes

We study the effect of direct democracy on local taxation. Our setting is the German federal state of Bavaria, where in 1995 a state-wide reform introduced the possibility to initiate direct democratic legislation into the local government code. Relying on a sample of all Bavarian municipalities over 1980-2011, we hypothesize that complementing a representative form of government with the initiative process leads to (i) higher local tax rates and (ii) a shift of the local tax mix from taxes with broader (property taxes) to taxes with narrower bases (business taxes). For identification, we rely on a difference-in-discontinuity design. Our results suggest that the ease with which local initiatives can be implemented – measured by signature and quorum requirements – increases local tax rates and shift the tax mix toward taxes with narrower bases.

The Option Value of Mortgage Interest Tax Deductibility

We offer a continuous-time contingent claims valuation framework to quantify the tax shield value of US mortgage interest deduction (MID) under uncertainty. We identify non-linear forms (both convex and concave regions) in the pay-off of MID, and discuss the implications for optimal mortgage purchase decisions. The model provides insights regarding the relationship between the effective MID and a set of underlying variables, including income level, house price, mortgage size, and state and local tax rates. In particular, we show how the tax shield value of a mortgage loan changes with key variables such as the life of the loan and the volatility of underlying processes. We apply the model to the case of optimal choice of adjustable versus fixed rate mortgages and prove that under a mean-preserving interest rate, an adjustable mortgage always offers a bigger tax saving. Our work demonstrates a novel aspect of dynamic analysis in the mortgage market.

Heterogeneity in Tax Rate Elasticities of Capital: Evidence from Local Business Tax Reforms

This study examines heterogeneity in tax rate elasticities of corporate capital using staggered variation in local business tax rates of German municipalities. The results suggest an average long-run capital decline of 0.97% after a 1% increase in the tax rate. In line with prior literature that suggests higher investment-cash flow sensitivities of firms with financing constraints tax rate elasticities are up to half times larger for financially constrained firms than for unconstrained firms. Moreover, capital responses are about half times larger for firms with fewer tax avoidance possibilities. Finally, this study contributes to the literature on tax incidence. I find a weaker relation between taxes and capital for firms that are less likely to bear the economic burden of the tax because they shift the tax incidence to their stakeholders.

Variation in Local House Price–Rent Ratios

The price–rent ratio is commonly used as an indicator of housing value. New data sources remove previous technical limitations on ratio construction and use, providing information on a monthly basis at the town, neighborhood, and ZIP Code levels. In this study, I explore the new data and find significant variation in price–rent ratios found across local markets that is correlated with local property tax rates, household income, and age. This work should encourage further study on cross- market ratio analysis, as well as the development of local indices to more effectively assess the possibility that a specific local market may be underpriced or overpriced.

The institutional logics of local government budget in Indonesia

This study asks how and why a local government settings budget. It aims to deliver an understanding on how a government entity perceives that budget is important element to manage public expenditures. It uses the S local government in Indonesia as a case study. This study applies Institutional Logics Theory as a theoretical framework in order to analyze data. Data is collected by interviewing seven key persons who directly involves in budgeting process. This research shows that the budgeting process includes determining the purposes of annual budget, setting up planned programs and actvities, determining the amount of revenue that will be collected, allocating resources to expenditures and setting up standar pricing. Some important points in the budgeting process are identified. Those are considering political aspect to determine local tax rate, focusing on competition with other local governments, fulfilling the political promise of local government leader to the constituents, involving community to determine planned program and activities, and allocating resources based on community basic needs. This study concludes that those points develop the institutional logics of politic and managerial in budget setting process.

Sales Taxes and the Decision to Purchase Online

There is much speculation that the current differential tax treatment of retail versus e-commerce purchases may act as an incentive to conduct shopping online. This paper uses data from the 2002 Current Population Survey to estimate the effects of local sales tax rates on the household's decisions to obtain internet access and, conditional upon access, to participate in online shopping. Our results demonstrate that local sales taxes have no statistically significant impact on the decision to obtain access to the internet. We also find that a higher sales tax rate reduces the probability that consumers purchase online, and this result is quite robust across a wide variety of specifications and empirical approaches. However, we find that this impact is typically much smaller than earlier estimates. In our preferred model, the elasticity of the probability of online purchases with respect to the tax price of online purchases is only 0.52, so that taxing internet sales would reduce the probability of online purchases but by only 6 percent.

Has a High Value Added Tax Harmed the European Economy

The Value Added Tax (VAT) is widely used throughout Europe and is analogous to state and local sales taxes in the United States of America (U.S.) in that both are taxes on consumption. However, Europe's VAT rates are much higher than U.S. sales tax rates. The standard VAT rate ranges from 20% in Austria to 27% in Hungary. In contrast, U.S. state and local sales tax rates range from 0% in three states to 9.45% in Tennessee. Additionally, U.S. taxpayers can take a federal income tax deduction for sales taxes paid; thereby reducing their overall federal income tax bills. In part, the relatively low U.S. sales tax contributes to the difference in recent economic performance between the U.S. and Europe. Over the last year, Real Gross Domestic Product (RGDP) has increased by 2.4% in the United States compared with 1.4% in the Euro Area. The U.S. civilian unemployment rate is 5.0% compared with 10.2% in the Euro area.This paper examines whether European countries have been harmed by their high VAT rates. I collect revenue and expenditure data for 19 European countries, 17 of which are members of the European Union. For each country, I determine the effect of the VAT on GDP, on the unemployment rate, and on social welfare.The paper refers to the optimal tax theory, which defines an optimal tax regime as one in which social welfare is maximized. I introduce two additional criteria: GDP maximization and unemployment rate minimization. I compare the existing European tax regime to the current U.S. tax regime, and estimate the optimal VAT tax rate for 19 European countries.

Local taxes and political influence: evidence from locally dominant firms in German municipalities

We analyze the impact of locally dominant firms—i.e. firms that contribute a sizeable share to municipalities’ revenues—on local business tax rates. We argue that these firms have considerable political power locally even if they are not large in the regional or national perspective. These locally dominant firms can use their political power to voice their concerns directly vis-a-vis the local government—a channel of influence that is hardly available in municipalities with an atomistic structure of tax payers. We hypothesize that municipalities with locally dominant firms will set lower tax rates than municipalities in which tax-payers’ concentration is low. We test the impact of tax-payers’ concentration on local business tax rates using data from 423 municipalities in the German state Hesse between 1998 and 2005. The estimation technique accounts for spatial lags and autoregressive disturbances. Results support our central hypothesis: the higher the tax-payers’ concentration, the lower the municipal business tax rates.

Identification of Statistical Relations between Tax Policies in Voivodship Capitals and Local Housing Market Development

The authors seek the correlations between local council policies concerning residential property taxation and the growth of local housing markets in voivodship capitals in 2007–2013. The first part of the paper contains the analysis of the dynamics of changes in local property taxes followed by the evaluation of the development levels of local housing markets and their linear ordering by means of the property market development indicator. Then, in order to capture the similarities and identify trends on the local housing markets, the cities were classified into homogenous clusters. In the last stage of the analysis the authors evaluated the relevance of property tax rates adopted locally on the growth of local housing markets. The study results showed no statistically relevant correlation between the analysed phenomena — i.e., no effect of the local property tax rates on the decisions made by investors on the local housing markets.

The Effect of Spillovers and Congestion on the Endogenous Formation of Jurisdictions

AbstractThis paper analyzes the effect of interjurisdictional spillovers and congestion of local public services on the segregative properties of endogenous formation of jurisdictions. Households choosing to live at the same place form a jurisdiction which produces congested local public services, which generates positive spillovers to other jurisdictions. In every jurisdiction, the production of the local public services is financed through a local tax based on households' wealth. Local wealth tax rates are democratically determined in every jurisdiction. Households consume the available amount of public services in their jurisdiction and a composite private good. Any household is free to leave its jurisdiction for another that would increase its utility. A necessary and sufficient condition to have every stable jurisdiction structure segregated by wealth is identified: the public services must be either a gross substitute or a gross complement to the private good.

Let's Stay in Touch - Evidence on the Role of Social Learning in Local Tax Interactions

This paper exploits detailed information on local political and socioeconomic networks and a reform of local fiscal equalization in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW)to identify the role of learning in local tax rate interactions. Using this policy change in spatial lag IV regressions, we find that institutions like counties and jointly used administrations yield significant positive tax interactions whereas geographical neighbors do not react to each other. Common local media trigger tax policy interactions as well. Short-lived reform effects support our findings that social learning within certain networks intensifies tax rate interactions via coordination of local decision makers.