Nobody enjoys paying taxes. Or at least that feeling, but if one accepts and chooses to comply, some taxes feel fairer than others. This perspective emerges from a study conducted by La Caixa Foundation, based on a representative sample of the Spanish population. It highlights a trend: support rises for higher rates on personal income tax compared to inheritance tax. For instance, people generally prefer inheritance taxes over burdensome legacy taxes; income tax remains the most burdensome direct levy in 2021, totaling 94.5 billion euros with nearly 20 million taxpayers. Inheritance is charged differently across autonomous communities; some regions collect, while others do not. Consider a hypothetical 30-year-old who inherits 800,000 euros from a parent. If 200,000 of that amount is their habitual residence, the scenario could result in more than 103,000 euros owed in Asturias, while Galicia, Cantabria, and Andalusia might impose little or no tax.
The research team includes Luis Miller from the Spanish Scientific Research Council (CSIC), José A. Noguera from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), and Leire Salazar from the National University of Distance Education (UNED). They analyze clearly higher and more favorable averages for personal income tax than for inheritance tax in all cases. To reach these conclusions, a survey was administered to a random sample of 1,500 individuals representing the Spanish population in March 2020.
For beneficiaries, the data show that the chosen rate rarely falls below 10 percent in most hypothetical situations, yet can exceed 30 percent for individuals with very high income under personal income tax. The study is framed by the title Inheritance Tax and Income Tax: How Much Should Be Paid?; the majority of respondents express a preference for higher rates than those currently in place across different autonomous communities.
The analysis also raises additional questions. When participants are asked to position themselves within the income distribution, they tend to favor higher rates for both taxes. In this context, the difference can reach up to four percentage points.
Another important finding is that about 90 percent of participants misperceive their own place in the income distribution. In practice, many see themselves as middle income, overestimating their wealth while underestimating those who are poorer. Those who view themselves as poorer than they are tend to advocate lower inheritance tax rates.
Multiple survey-based studies show that most citizens recognize the need to pay taxes and approve the role of taxation as a mechanism for redistribution and financing services. However, this consensus does not translate into uniform acceptance across all groups or all financial scales.
The comparison between personal income tax and inheritance and donation taxes reveals a wider social reluctance to tax inherited wealth. In many countries, inheritance taxes face stronger social and political resistance, which has led to substantial reductions, and in some autonomous communities their near disappearance. This evolving attitude reflects a tension between family values, perceived fairness, and public understanding of how these taxes affect social mobility and household wealth.
So why such aversion? A few studies emphasize the importance of certain family norms, such as the legacy of inheritance being tied to minimal tax burden, a belief that these taxes promote equal opportunity, or gaps in knowledge about how these taxes influence society and household distribution of income and wealth.
The authors conclude that one key takeaway from the experiment is that understanding how citizens are distributed across income levels and fostering a tax culture can lead to greater willingness to support progressive taxation.