The Role of Misconceptions in Support for Regressive Tax Reform

2006/03/01 by Joel Slemrod · 122 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Social Sciences · #Distribution (mathematics) #Economics #Electoral Systems and Political Participation #Fiscal Policy and Economic Growth #Income tax #Public economics #State income tax #Tax reform #Taxation and Compliance Studies

paper · doi:10.17310/ntj.2006.1.03

published in National Tax Journal 59(1), 57-75 (University of Chicago Press)

openalex publication_date 2006/03/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23

Abstract

In this paper, I use data from an exceptionally detailed survey of attitudes toward taxation in the United States to investigate the relative importance of one particular misconception—that high-income people would pay more tax under an apparently regressive reform, mostly because many people believe that the distribution of the burden of the existing income tax is regressive—in explaining public support for aflat tax and a retail sales tax. I find that this policy misconception is strongly associated with support for replacing the existing income tax with either of these two alternatives. A similar misconception about the distributional impact of the estate tax explains some of the support for eliminating that tax.

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