Debates about the taxation of business owners often center on the distributional impacts of these taxes, particularly the degree to which they affect workers. Drawing on a new linked owner-firm-worker dataset created from U.S. administrative tax records, I analyze how an increase in the top marginal tax rate faced by business owners affected the earnings of their employees. I use panel difference-in-differences methods to compare the earnings of workers in similar firms, but whose owners were differentially exposed to the tax increase. I estimate that 11 to 18 cents per dollar of new business income tax liability was passed through to employee earnings. I find no change in employment in response to the tax increase. The responses were generally associated with lower earnings growth, not changes in workforce composition. The burden was not borne equally by all workers. Essentially all of the workers’ share of the burden was borne by those in the top 30% of the earnings distribution, highlighting that the ultimate distributional effects of the policy depend not only on the share of the burden borne by workers, but on the shares borne by different types of workers. Further, since the owners bore the majority of the burden, the policy resulted in a decrease in after-tax earnings inequality between top-bracket owners and lower-bracket workers. I discuss the implications of the findings for the mediating labor market mechanisms and for welfare analyses of income taxation using a marginal value of public funds framework.

中文翻译：

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对企业主征税会影响员工吗？最高边际税率变化的证据

关于企业主税收的争论通常集中在这些税收的分配影响上，特别是它们对工人的影响程度。利用根据美国行政税务记录创建的新的所有者-公司-工人关联数据集，我分析了企业主面临的最高边际税率的增加如何影响其员工的收入。我使用面板双重差分法来比较类似公司中工人的收入，但这些公司的所有者受到增税的影响不同。我估计，每 1 美元的新企业所得税负债中有 11 至 18 美分转嫁给了员工收入。我发现就业没有因增税而发生变化。这些反应通常与收入增长放缓有关，而不是劳动力构成的变化。这一负担并非由所有工人平等承担。基本上所有工人的负担份额都由收入分配前30%的人承担，这凸显了政策的最终分配效果不仅取决于工人负担的份额，还取决于份额由不同类型的工人承担。此外，由于业主承担了大部分负担，该政策减少了顶层业主和底层工人之间的税后收入不平等。我讨论了研究结果对劳动力市场中介机制和使用公共资金边际价值框架的所得税福利分析的影响。强调政策的最终分配效果不仅取决于工人所承担的负担份额，还取决于不同类型工人所承担的负担份额。此外，由于业主承担了大部分负担，该政策减少了顶层业主和底层工人之间的税后收入不平等。我讨论了研究结果对劳动力市场中介机制和使用公共资金边际价值框架的所得税福利分析的影响。强调政策的最终分配效果不仅取决于工人所承担的负担份额，还取决于不同类型工人所承担的负担份额。此外，由于业主承担了大部分负担，该政策减少了顶层业主和底层工人之间的税后收入不平等。我讨论了研究结果对劳动力市场中介机制和使用公共资金边际价值框架的所得税福利分析的影响。该政策减少了顶层所有者和底层工人之间的税后收入不平等。我讨论了研究结果对劳动力市场中介机制和使用公共资金边际价值框架的所得税福利分析的影响。该政策减少了顶层所有者和底层工人之间的税后收入不平等。我讨论了研究结果对劳动力市场中介机制和使用公共资金边际价值框架的所得税福利分析的影响。