Should wealth be taxed with a progressive tax? The debate is international. Some warn that it may encourage the relocation of the wealthiest taxpayers; others defend it to reduce the concentration of wealth and complement the taxation of capital in the personal income tax (IRPF). But what is it supposed to complement, if savings returns are already taxed through the savings tax rate?

In the field of public economics, the maxim that taxes are the price we pay for living in a democracy is well known. However, paying taxes doesn't directly benefit the individual taxpayer, but rather society as a whole, and it's often tempting to think that nothing bad will happen if you don't pay, because someone else will. For this reason, in addition to ensuring a tax administration that facilitates and guarantees effective tax compliance, it's beneficial for governments to foster trust in the public sector, so that people are more willing to pay taxes. This, for example, is what we found in a study conducted jointly with Leo Rizzo and Riccardo Secomandi, professors at the University of Ferrara and associate researchers at the IEB, in the context of the COVID-19 vaccination process.