THE JAMES HAUSMAN TAX LAW & POLICY WORKSHOPS
presents
Yair Listokin
Yale Law School
Tax Expenditure Salience
Wednesday, January 16, 2013
12:30 - 1:45
Solarium (room FA2) – Falconer Hall
84 Queen’s Park
We provide survey evidence regarding taxpayer perceptions of two important tax expenditures—the charitable contribution deduction (CD) and the home mortgage interest deduction (HMID). Our results suggest widespread misperceptions among taxpayers concerning the incentives associated with both programs. Almost half of eligible taxpayers are unaware of the CD’s availability. Among those who are aware, the majority under-estimate the magnitude of the available subsidy. For the HMID, taxpayer err in both directions: many eligible taxpayers falsely believe themselves to be ineligible while even more ineligible taxpayers falsely believe themselves eligible. Taxpayers who qualify for the HMID tend to underestimate the size of the associated tax benefits. For both deductions, we find that errors are prevalent even among taxpayers in the highest income categories. Our results provide important context for evaluating the effectiveness of the CD and HMID and shed light on potential reforms.
Yair Listokin is a Professor of Law at Yale Law School. His scholarship examines problems in tax law, corporate law, contract law, and bankruptcy law from both empirical and theoretical perspectives. Recent projects include a theoretical inquiry into the impact of taxation on the size of the financial sector and an empirical study of consumer’s implicit understandings of the meaning of contractual silence. Prior to joining Yale Law School, Professor Listokin clerked for Judge Richard Posner on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, received a Ph.D. in economics from Princeton University, and obtained his J.D. from Yale School, where he was three times named the John M. Olin Prize Winner for the best student paper in law and economics.
A light lunch will be served.
For more workshop information, please contact Nadia Gulezko at n.gulezko@utoronto.ca.
