Trens in Top Incomes (Matthews)

Trends in top incomes and their tax policy implications by Stephen Matthews published by OECD. “This paper uses data derived from tax returns to analyse trends in the share of pre-tax personal income going to top income recipients. An important feature of the increased share is that it is mostly attributable to higher employment and business income, not capital income, and reflects such factors as the incentive effects of cuts in (top) marginal tax rates and the fact that the remuneration of top executives and finance professionals has become increasingly related to ‘performance`, particularly through the use of stock an stock options.”