Project description
The role of capital gains taxation in curbing inequality
Often identified as a central loophole in modern tax systems, capital gains taxation allows wealth to grow largely untaxed until assets are sold or even avoided completely through relocation. Supported by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the KG-TAX project explores two policy alternatives. The first is accrual-based taxation. The second is exit taxation. Based on data from Denmark and France and advanced microeconometric methods, the project will provide the first systematic evidence on how taxpayers respond to these approaches. It will assess trade-offs between liquidity constraints, investment distortions and tax avoidance, while analysing how exit taxes influence migration decisions among wealthy individuals. The findings aim to inform fairer, more efficient taxation policies.
Objective
The realization-based taxation of capital gains is often described as the Achilles’ heel of modern tax systems: it allows wealthy households and entrepreneurs to accumulate vast fortunes while deferring taxation, sometimes indefinitely or by emigrating abroad. This project studies two remedies to this weakness: accrual-based taxation and exit taxation. By combining Danish and French micro-level administrative data and frontier microeconometric methods, I aim to generate the first systematic evidence on taxpayers' response to accrual-based capital gains taxation and exit taxation. The results will have implications for how to tax capital gains in order to minimize economic distortions while reducing avoidance opportunities, raising revenue, and ultimately reducing inequality.
Part 1 examines the distortions created by accrual-based taxation and compares them to distortions under the default system, where gains are taxed upon realization. In accrual-based systems, gains are taxed annually regardless of whether assets are sold. This may generate liquidity constraints, forcing taxpayers to sell assets they would otherwise have retained in order to pay their tax liabilities. By contrast, realization-based systems create a lock-in effect, whereby investors retain appreciated assets to postpone tax liability, leading to inefficient portfolio allocation. Using Danish administrative data, I will present direct empirical evidence on the prevalence of both distortions.
Part 2 focuses on exit taxation, which levies taxes on accrued gains when taxpayers emigrate. By discouraging the emigration of wealthy households, exit taxation may protect the domestic tax base and support innovation and employment. Despite its substantial policy relevance, there is to date no empirical evidence on its impact. Leveraging French administrative data and the exit tax reforms of 2011 and 2014, I will estimate how exit taxation affects the semi-elasticity of migration with respect to taxation.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences economics and business business and management entrepreneurship
- social sciences sociology governance taxation
- social sciences economics and business business and management employment
- social sciences sociology demography human migrations
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Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.2 - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA)
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Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
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Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF - HORIZON TMA MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships - European Fellowships
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Call for proposal
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(opens in new window) HORIZON-MSCA-2025-PF
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OX1 2JD Oxford
United Kingdom
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