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We empirically assess the limits of redistribution due to asymmetric information between a tax authority and taxpayers in an optimal taxation model with both direct (income) and indirect (consumption) taxes. Using data from the French consumer expenditure survey “Budget de famille” released in 2011, we find that the tax system favors middle-class households from the sixth decile in the distribution of consumption expenditures. The innovative contribution of our paper lies in identifying the incentive constraint where top income earners are ready to relax labor effort to mimic the favored middle-class households as being the only ones that assign limits to the redistribution toward the middle class.