AVOIDING TAXES BY TRANSFERS WITHIN THE FAMILY

Edoardo Di Porto and Henry Ohlsson

No 2016:4, Working Paper Series from Uppsala University, Department of Economics

Abstract: We document an episode with considerable tax avoidance that occurred in Italy after 2008 when the Italian government reformed the property taxation by abolishing taxation on principal residences and increasing taxation on secondary properties. In presence of a very low inter vivos gift tax, Italian families found it bene cial to redistribute proper- ties among their members. Di erence-in-di erence estimates indicate that property tax reform increased the probability that high-wealth donors made an inter vivos property gift by 3 percentage points and the size transferred by 4 square meters relative to less wealthy donors. Our estimates allow us to compute (back of the envelope) the amount of tax avoidance due to inter vivos transfer. The amount is around 78 million euros, or 4 percent of the annual tax revenue from principal residences.

Keywords: tax avoidance; property taxes; inter vivos gifts (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D11 D31 H27 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2016-03-15
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Avoiding taxes by transfers within the family (2021)
Working Paper: Avoiding Taxes by Transfers Within the Family (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hhs:uunewp:2016_004

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