Taxpayer response to greater progressivity: evidence from personal income tax reform in Uganda
Maria Jouste (),
Tina Kaidu Barugahara,
Joseph Ayo Okello,
Jukka Pirttilä and
Pia Rattenhuber
Additional contact information
Maria Jouste: UNU-WIDER
Tina Kaidu Barugahara: Uganda Revenue Authority
Joseph Ayo Okello: Uganda Revenue Authority
Jukka Pirttilä: University of Helsinki
Pia Rattenhuber: UNU-WIDER
International Tax and Public Finance, 2025, vol. 32, issue 4, No 7, 1177-1212
Abstract:
Abstract The extent of redistribution in low-income developing countries, including in Africa, is very limited, which raises the question whether the tax rates of high-income individuals should be raised. A crucial parameter when considering a potential increase in progressivity is the response of taxable income to increased tax rates. In this paper, we evaluate a major personal income tax reform in Uganda that came into effect in 2012–2013, which increased the top tax rate by 10 percentage points. Using the universe of pay-as-you-earn (PAYE) administrative data from the Uganda Tax Authority, we analyse the impact of the reform on reported labour incomes. In the preferred specification, we find very limited support for behavioural reactions. However, heterogeneity analysis reveals that top-income workers in firms handled by ordinary (as opposed to medium or large taxpayer) offices report lower incomes after the reform. We also find suggestive evidence that part of the response may arise from income shifting to other tax bases. The reform managed to raise more revenue and it also led to a limited reduction in after-tax income inequality.
Keywords: Personal income tax; Uganda; Administrative data; Tax reform (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C31 H24 O23 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:
Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10797-024-09861-w Abstract (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:kap:itaxpf:v:32:y:2025:i:4:d:10.1007_s10797-024-09861-w
Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... ce/journal/10797/PS2
DOI: 10.1007/s10797-024-09861-w
Access Statistics for this article
International Tax and Public Finance is currently edited by Ronald B. Davies and Kimberly Scharf
More articles in International Tax and Public Finance from Springer, International Institute of Public Finance Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().