Using observational micro data from the Luxembourg Income Study (LIS) we assess the redistributive impact of tax and transfer cofigurations across 22 OECD countries for the period 1999-2013. After imputing missing tax data (employer social security contributions), we measure the reduction of income inequality due to four key levers of tax and transfer systems: the average tax rate, tax progressivity, the average transfer rate, and transfer targeting. Our methodological improvements provide the following results: First, tax redistribution dominates transfer redistribution (excluding pensions) in most countries. Second, targeting explains very little of the cross-country variation in inequality reduction. In contrast, both progressivity of taxes and the average tax rate have large impacts on redistribution. Third, we observe the trace of political trade-offs. High average tax rates do not appear in conjunction with highly progressive tax systems.