TY  - JOUR
AU  - Kaplow,Louis
TI  - Transfer Motives and Tax Policy
JF  - National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper Series
VL  - No. 6340
PY  - 1999
Y2  - March 1999
UR  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6340
L1  - http://www.nber.org/papers/w6340.pdf
N1  - Author contact info:
Louis Kaplow
Harvard University
Hauser 322
Cambridge, MA  02138
Tel: 617/495-4101
Fax: 617/496-4880
E-Mail: meskridge@law.harvard.edu
AB  - This paper considers the optimal tax treatment of voluntary transfers to individuals in a" framework that integrates redistributive income taxation and estate and gift taxation.  Under this" formulation, redistributive considerations become secondary.  The optimal tax treatment of" transfers depends upon the differences between expenditures on transfers and ordinary personal" consumption.  It turns out that some types of transfers confer a sort of positive externality on" donees, some create tax revenue externalities, and some affect donors' and donees' marginal" utilities of income in a manner relevant to the optimal taxation problem.  Different types of" transfers have qualitatively different effects.
ER  -