An Unfortunate Loss? A Report on the Inheritance Tax to the Expert Group on Public Economics
In the new ESO report, Mikael Elinder and Oscar Erixson summarize the last decade’s research on the consequences of and attitudes toward inheritance taxation. Since the abolishment of the inheritance tax in Sweden in 2004, more than 30 Swedish research papers and reports have been written on different aspects of inheritances and the inheritance tax.
Oscar Erixson
Mikael Elinder
The two researchers summarize these studies as well as the lessons learned from over a hundred international studies. The objective is to summarize the current knowledge about the pros and cons of inheritance taxation. Based on this knowledge they discuss how an inheritance tax might be designed for the Swedish context and what such a tax would be able to accomplish. Their conclusion is, however, that the possibilities of achieving intended policy goals, such as reducing economic inequality, by an inheritance tax, are limited.
Read the report here
Read more about the report on ESO's web here (in Swedish)