Fiscal Fairness as a Political Argument
研究了财产税横向不公平是否影响地方政府的税收选择，利用佛兰德市政数据发现，财产税越不公平的市镇越少依赖该税种作为收入来源。
Summary Governments typically apply several tax instruments. The tax choice literature sees the choice among these as depending on the political costs involved. One source of such costs is (horizontal) inequity in the distribution of the tax burden. In this article, we provide the first empirical test of the question whether and to what extent such inequity affects tax choices. Using data on housing sales and tax policy in Flemish municipalities, we create an indicator for the inequity of the local property tax. The latter is levied on the property's assessed rental value, and its inequity is a by‐product of the slow reassessment procedure, leading to a situation in which properties of identical value are taxed very differently. We find clear evidence that municipalities in which property taxation is more inequitable tend to rely less on this tax as a source of municipal revenue.