Articlegreen2020

How to Improve Tax Compliance? Evidence from Population-Wide Experiments in Belgium

Jan-emmanuel De Neve A · Clément Imbert · Johannes Spinnewijn Y · Teodora Tsankova · Maarten Luts

140 citations0/0 files storedJournal of Political Economy

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Taxation and Compliance Studies Economic and Fiscal Studies Experimental Behavioral Economics Studies

Abstract

We study the impact of simplification, deterrence, and tax morale on tax compliance. We ran four natural field experiments varying the communication of the tax administration with the universe of income taxpayers in Belgium throughout the tax process. A consistent picture emerges across experiments: (i) simplifying communication substantially increases compliance, (ii) deterrence messages have an additional positive effect, (iii) invoking tax morale is not effective and often backfires. A discontinuity in enforcement intensity, combined with the experimental variation, allows us to compare simplification with standard enforcement measures. We find that simplification is far more cost-effective, allowing for substantial savings on enforcement costs.

Citations in this library

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References

1968Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach 2011Unwilling or Unable to Cheat? Evidence From a Tax Audit Experiment in Denmark 2007The Economic Psychology of Tax Behaviour 2017Should Governments Invest More in Nudging?2014Tax Morale 2011Measuring, explaining, and controlling tax evasion: lessons from theory, experiments, and field studies 2007Tax Compliance and Tax Morale 2013TESTING ENFORCEMENT STRATEGIES IN THE FIELD: THREAT, MORAL APPEAL AND SOCIAL INFORMATION

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