Suchergebnisse

An enduring problem in the analysis of tax evasion is the difficulty of its measurement. An especially troublesome component of tax evasion arises from informal suppliers, such as self‐employed domestic workers, street‐side vendors, and moonlighting tradesmen. We develop in this paper a new approach for estimating self‐employment earnings of informal suppliers. Our methodology involves using national survey results on self‐employment earnings within a carefully selected set of industry categories where informal activities are concentrated. Then, by comparing these national survey results on self‐employment earnings to Internal Revenue Service statistics on the amounts actually reported for tax purposes, it is possible to estimate the extent of noncompliance within the selected industry categories. Our methodology relies on survey respondents being reasonably forthcoming about their earnings, which we are able to confirm through some validation exercises.

We derive a simple theoretical framework in which acquisitions are treated as an alternative way of obtaining capital goods. Our framework predicts that both investment and acquisitions are positively related to a firm's shadow value of capital. We transform our theoretical specification into an econometric model, which we then estimate using a long panel data‐set spanning 503 US firms over 15 consecutive years. Our results indicate that an increase in the shadow value of capital has approximately the same proportionate effect on the level of acquisitions as it does on investment. This result proves to be robust to a variety of alternative specifications.

Abstract
The tax compliance literature is primarily focused on taxpayers who fail to accurately report their taxes when they file their returns. In this article, our focus is on 'ghosts'—individuals who do not even file a tax return. To learn more about this relatively understudied population, we examine a combination of US administrative data and matched Census survey data. Our results indicate that 10–12% of US households with a federal filing requirement fail to file a timely income tax return. Approximately 40% of such households do eventually file a late return. However, the tax gap associated with those who never file is substantial, amounting to an estimated $18–20 billion each year. To gain new insights into what drives individuals to become ghosts, we employ a novel econometric methodology (calibrated probit analysis). We find that the failure to file a timely return is negatively associated with age and income, but positively associated with having a high filing burden and being married. Taxpayers with income near the filing threshold are also less likely to file on time, particularly if they are not eligible for a refundable tax credit. We also find evidence of regional variation in filing compliance.

AbstractThis article employs unique tax administrative data and operational audit information, including risk scores used for audit selection, from a sample of approximately 7500 self-employed US taxpayers to investigate the effects of operational tax audits on future reporting behavior. Our estimates indicate that audits can have substantial deterrent or counter-deterrent effects, depending on the audit outcome. In the aggregate, taxable income is estimated to increase by roughly 15% 1 year after an operational audit. However, this figure masks substantial heterogeneity within the population. Among those taxpayers who receive an additional tax assessment, reported taxable income is estimated to be 64% higher in the first year after the audit (44% after 3 years) than it would have been in the absence of the audit. In contrast, among those taxpayers who do not receive an additional tax assessment, reported taxable income is estimated to be approximately 15% lower the year after the audit (21% 3 years later) than it would have been had the audit not taken place. Our results suggest that improved targeting of audits toward noncompliant taxpayers would not only yield more direct audit revenue but also pay dividends in terms of future tax collections.

Tax policy debates—and reforms—depend heavily on estimates of how alternative tax rules would affect behavior. Yet there is considerable controversy about the key empirical links among tax rates, household decisions, and revenue collections. The nine papers in this volume exploit the substantial variation in U.S. tax policy during the last two decades to investigate how taxes affect a range of household behavior, including labor-force participation, saving behavior, choice of health insurance plan, choice of child care arrangements, portfolio choice, and tax evasion. They also present new analytical results on the effects of different types of tax policy. All of this research relies on household-level data—drawn either from public-use tax return files or from large household-level surveys—to explore various aspects of the relationship between taxes and household behavior. As debates about the effects of proposed tax reforms continue in the 1990s, this volume will be of interest to policy makers and scholars in the field of public finance