Measuring Top Incomes Using Tax Record Data: A Cautionary Tale from Australia

Richard Burkhauser, Markus Hahn and Roger Wilkins ()

No 19121, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Atkinson, Piketty, and Saez (2011) survey an important new literature using income tax-based data to measure the share of income held by top income groups. But changes in tax legislation that expand the tax base to include income sources (e.g. capital gains, dividends, etc.) disproportionately held by these groups will conflate such an expansion with an increase in the share of income they hold. We provide a cautionary tale from Australia of how comprehensive tax reform legislation in 1985 substantially altered Australian top income series, especially those that do not separate taxable realized capital gains from other taxable income.

JEL-codes: H0 I0 J0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2013-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc, nep-ltv and nep-pbe
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Published as Richard Burkhauser & Markus Hahn & Roger Wilkins, 2015. "Measuring top incomes using tax record data: a cautionary tale from Australia," Journal of Economic Inequality, Springer, vol. 13(2), pages 181-205, June.

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Journal Article: Measuring top incomes using tax record data: a cautionary tale from Australia (2015)
Working Paper: Measuring Top Incomes Using Tax Record Data: A Cautionary Tale from Australia (2013)
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