AJZ2017.pdf

 Tax Evasion and Inequality∗AnnetteAlstadsæter(Norwegian University of Life Sciences)NielsJohannesen(University of Copenhagen and CEBI)GabrielZucman(UC Berkeley and NBER)October 23, 2018AbstractDrawing on a unique dataset of leaked customer lists from offshore financial institutionsmatched to administrative wealth records in Scandinavia, we show that offshore tax evasionis highly concentrated among the rich. The skewed distribution of offshore wealth implieshigh rates of tax evasion at the top: we find that the 0.01% richest households evade about25% of their taxes. By contrast, tax evasion detected in stratified random tax audits isless than 5% throughout the distribution. Top wealth shares increase substantially whenaccounting for unreported assets, highlighting the importance of factoring in tax evasionto properly measure inequality





AJZ2017.pdf