Acta Universitatis Danubius. Œconomica, Vol 7, No 2 (2011)

Abstract

In the last decades, in some states, wealth taxes have been reconsidered. Amid the
problems outlined, our paper aims to highlight states options on wealth taxes and to analyze the
impact of reforms on wealth taxes in recent decades, in the member states of the European Union and
the U.S., through the financial, economic and correcting inequalities role, played by taxes, in general,
and taxes on wealth, in particular. Amid the rise of social inequalities, especially in the U.S., A
second objective of our paper, adjacent to those already mentioned, is the analysis of the degree of
reduction of social inequalities, through taxes on wealth in the countries concerned. By a survey in
OECD member states, on the role of wealth tax, we find a series of opportunities and limits in the
increase of their financial and redistributive role.