Taxpayer responsiveness to taxation: Evidence from bunching at kink points of the South African income tax schedule

Neryvia Pillay

No wp-2020-68, WIDER Working Paper Series from World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER)

Abstract: The author applies the bunching methodology to South African administrative tax data over the period from 2011 to 2017 to investigate the responsiveness of individual taxpayers to changes in marginal personal income tax rates. She finds significant evidence of bunching among the self-employed but no evidence of bunching among wage earners. Among the self-employed, bunching is greatest at the highest kink in the income tax schedule and smallest at the lowest kink. Female self-employed exhibit greater bunching behaviour than male self-employed, and responsiveness appears to decrease with age.

Keywords: Tax bunching; Elasticity of taxable income; Personal income tax; South Africa (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc, nep-ent and nep-pbe
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Working Paper: Taxpayer responsiveness to taxation Evidence from bunching at kink points of the South African income tax schedule (2021)
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