Tax Planning of Married Couples and Intra-Household Income Inequality

47 Pages Posted: 13 Aug 2017 Last revised: 20 Mar 2020

See all articles by Thiess Buettner

Thiess Buettner

University of Erlangen-Nuremberg-Friedrich Alexander Universität Erlangen Nürnberg; CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute)

Katharina Erbe

University of Erlangen-Nuremberg-Friedrich Alexander Universität Erlangen Nürnberg

Veronika Grimm

University of Erlangen-Nuremberg-Friedrich Alexander Universität Erlangen Nürnberg - School of Business & Economics

Date Written: August 17, 2018

Abstract

This paper examines tax planning of married couples under separate taxation. A theoretical analysis uses a family decision-model with a household public good to show that the secondary earner might veto against tax planning if the realization of tax savings increases intra-household income inequality. The empirical analysis exploits a specific feature of the German tax system, which allows married couples to save taxes by deviating from the default symmetric payroll-tax treatment and assigning a favorable tax treatment to the primary earner and an unfavorable tax treatment to the secondary earner. Based on a representative random sample of individual tax files, the empirical results confirm the role of the income distribution. Opting for a tax-minimizing treatment is found to be less likely if this is associated with larger losses in the net income of the secondary earner. While this holds irrespective of which of the spouses has higher earnings, couples where the wife is the primary earner display a general reluctance to assign the favorable tax treatment to the wife.

Keywords: Tax Planning; Tax Avoidance; Tax Arbitrage; Married Couples; Separate Taxation; Family Decision Making; Gender Differences; Payroll Tax; Individual Tax Returns

JEL Classification: H26; D13

Suggested Citation

Buettner, Thiess and Erbe, Katharina and Grimm, Veronika, Tax Planning of Married Couples and Intra-Household Income Inequality (August 17, 2018). Journal of Public Economics, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3016803 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3016803

Thiess Buettner (Contact Author)

University of Erlangen-Nuremberg-Friedrich Alexander Universität Erlangen Nürnberg ( email )

Lange Gasse 20
Nürnberg, Bavaria 90403
Germany

CESifo (Center for Economic Studies and Ifo Institute) ( email )

Poschinger Str. 5
Munich, DE-81679
Germany

Katharina Erbe

University of Erlangen-Nuremberg-Friedrich Alexander Universität Erlangen Nürnberg ( email )

Schloßplatz 4
Erlangen, DE Bavaria 91054
Germany

Veronika Grimm

University of Erlangen-Nuremberg-Friedrich Alexander Universität Erlangen Nürnberg - School of Business & Economics ( email )

Nuremburg
Germany

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