Arbeitspapier

Income taxation of US households: Basic facts

We use micro data from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to document how households' tax liabilities vary with income, marital status and the number of dependents. We report facts on the distributions of average and marginal taxes, properties of the joint distributions of taxes paid and income, and discuss how taxes are affected by marital status and the number of children. The data reveals a large dispersion in tax rates and taxes paid. Ranking households according to the average tax rates they face, those at top 1% face taxes in excess of 27.5%, while the median tax rate is about 8%. About 14.5% of married and 31.8% of unmarried households do not pay any taxes. Given the progressivity in the system, tax liabilities are more unequally distributed than income. The top 5% (1%) of households account for 54% (34.8%) of total tax liabilities, while top 5% (1%) of households have 34.8% (20.3%) of total income. We also provide parametric estimates of tax functions for use in applied work in macroeconomics and public finance.

Sprache
Englisch

Erschienen in
Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 5549

Klassifikation
Wirtschaft
Fiscal Policy
Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents: Household
Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure; Domestic Abuse
Time Allocation and Labor Supply
Thema
taxation
tax progressivity
households
Einkommensteuer
Privater Haushalt
Steuerbelastung
Steuerprogression
Haushaltseinkommen
Einkommensverteilung
USA

Ereignis
Geistige Schöpfung
(wer)
Guner, Nezih
Kaygusuz, Remzi
Ventura, Gustavo
Ereignis
Veröffentlichung
(wer)
Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)
(wo)
Bonn
(wann)
2011

Handle
URN
urn:nbn:de:101:1-201104133713
Letzte Aktualisierung
10.03.2025, 11:45 MEZ

Datenpartner

Dieses Objekt wird bereitgestellt von:
ZBW - Deutsche Zentralbibliothek für Wirtschaftswissenschaften - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft. Bei Fragen zum Objekt wenden Sie sich bitte an den Datenpartner.

Objekttyp

  • Arbeitspapier

Beteiligte

  • Guner, Nezih
  • Kaygusuz, Remzi
  • Ventura, Gustavo
  • Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA)

Entstanden

  • 2011

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