Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/254250 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
IFS Working Paper No. W21/49
Publisher: 
Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), London
Abstract: 
We use newly linked tax records to show that the large responses of UK company owner-managers to personal taxes are due to intertemporal income shifting and not to reductions in real business activity. Around half of this shifting is short-term and helps prevent volatile incomes being taxed more heavily under progressive personal taxes. The remainder reflects systemic profit retention over long periods to take advantage of lower tax rates, including preferential treatment of capital gains. We find no evidence that this tax-induced retention increases business investment. It does, however, substantially reduce the tax revenue raised from high income business owners.
Subjects: 
income shifting
elasticity of taxable income
owner-managers
closely held business
dividend taxation
capital gains
JEL: 
H30
H24
H26
D25
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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