Capital Income Taxation and International Portfolio Choice

Distortionary proportional capital income taxation is shown to cause both static effects via portfolio re-allocation and dynamic effects via changes in the value of a claim to future transfers as well as via perceived changes in the future investment opportunity set. The stochastic structure of returns to investment is important for understanding the consequences of a unilateral increase in the domestic tax rate. A government choosing optimal tax policy makes a tradeoff between the increase in the perceived value of future transfers and the distortion to portfolio allocation produced by taxation. With corporate taxation the optimal tax rate is positive.