Schemes to outsmart the revenue authority and circumvent the burden of paying taxes have been around since the early ages. Governments implement systems to combat and curb tax evasion, expecting that their punishment methods will deter people from evading tax; nevertheless, tax evasion remains a...

This paper presents evidence of market externalities of tax evasion: firms' tax non-compliance distorts the outcomes of their competitors. Using novel administrative data on the universe of Italian firms, we compute a tax evasion proxy as the fraction of individual firms that manipulate their...

Tax administrations increasingly use audits via mail (correspondence audits) to audit taxpayers. Correspondence audits are cheaper than face-to-face audits but their effects on compliance are unclear. We investigate the effects of correspondence and face-to-face audits on post-audit tax...

This paper reveals how tax complexity, in the form of loopholes and assets overlapping different sections of tax returns, contributes to tax avoidance and evasion. Using administrative data from the Netherlands, it shows how an auditing announcement in 2005 triggered large increases in declared...

This paper studies the effects of the 2017 multilateral automatic exchange of information (AEoI) on tax compliance in Switzerland. Using detailed administrative tax data and difference-in-differences designs, I find significant positive compliance effects. The AEoI prompted 107k taxpayers (2% of...

To reduce funds for Russia’s Ukraine invasion, Western governments imposed a price ceiling on Russian seaborne oil exports using Western services. To sell above that ceiling, Russia developed a “shadow fleet” which uses no such services. We use a calibrated model driven by this fleet’s...

This paper explores whether tax compliance would be affected if the tax payers are "status" seekers. If relative income is a symbol of relative status in a society, status concerned individuals would evade paying taxes more relative to the case where status is not a concern. However, such an...

This study extends the theory of tax evasion by presenting a model of collaborative tax evasion between buyers and sellers. Buyers differ only in their level of tax morale, and tax evasion occurs when the seller fails to issue a receipt for the transaction. To counteract this, the government can...

Purpose The occurrence of economic crimes is a serious challenge to business leaders, government officials and private individuals in South Africa. The objective of this research was to determine the main reasons for committing economic crimes in South Africa. Design/Methodology/Approach Primary...

Tax evasion, a global concern, undermines government revenue, public services, and societal trust. It occurs when taxpayers deliberately avoid their tax obligations. This study primarily explores the link between government legitimacy and tax evasion decisions in Ethiopia. Aside from bridging...

The objective of the study was to determine the size of Ghana's "underground economy" and the extent of tax evasion in Ghana. The underground economy in most countries is vital because it serves as a survival place for most people. However, their activities are mostly related to tax evasion...

A specific form of VAT non-compliance in the EU that warrants particular attention is missing trader fraud. This scheme involves a fraudulent trader supplying goods and services to other businesses, collecting the tax due on the supply, and then disappearing without remitting it to the tax...

In practice, both pre- and after-tax performance measures are used to incentivize managers. In this paper, we analyze the optimality of these performance measures in an agency setting, assuming that both the principal and the agent face tax base risks. Switching from a pre-tax to an after-tax...

Governments increasingly use changes in tax rules to combat evasion. We develop a general approach to point-identify tax compliance along with supply and demand elasticities; identification requires data on prices and quantities before and after changes in tax enforcement and a demand or supply...

Offshore tax havens cause large losses of government revenue by facilitating tax evasion by wealthy individuals. This paper focuses on offshore tax evasion in developing countries and documents two empirical regularities. First, there is no clear development gradient in the exposure to offshore...