Indirect Taxes and Social Policy: Distributional Impact of Alternative Financing of Social Security

Abstract

The role of indirect taxes in social policy is investigated by

1) comparing the distributional pattern of indirect taxes with the one of personal income taxes and social security contributions;

2) calculating the indirect tax liabilities for recipients of social benefits;

3) assessing the distributional impact of shifting the financing of social security from contributions to indirect taxes. For this purpose we combine the data of the Household Budget Survey and the Socio-Economic Panel, as well as two microsimulation models, namely ASTER (for the calculation of indirect taxes) and MISIM (for the calculation of personal income taxes and social contributions).