This paper examines Act 32 of the Pennsylvania state legislature which mandated the introduction of withholding for the local earned income tax (EIT) for all employees and the consolidation of a fragmented collection system to one collector per county effective January 1, 2012. I find that the...

This paper employs unique tax administrative data and operational audit information from a sample of approximately 7,500 self-employed U.S. taxpayers to investigate the effects of operational tax audits on future reporting behavior. Our estimates indicate that audits can have substantial...

We conducted a randomised controlled trial in Indonesia to evaluate the effect of three intervention letters on tax penalty compliance behaviour. Over 10,000 individual taxpayers are randomly assigned to receive either a deterrence, information, or simplification letter, or no letter. Our...

This paper examines the impacts of introducing withholding of the personal income tax by state governments in the U.S. We exploit the staggered adoption of withholding by individual states over the period 1948-1976 to construct a difference-in-differences style estimate. We obtain a robust...

Tax reforms are crucial to promoting inclusive growth in India. The replacement of a myriad of consumption taxes by a Goods and Services Tax (GST) will boost India's competitiveness, investment, job creation and tax compliance. The potential to raise additional revenue from taxes on goods and...

This paper examines the claim that adopting more efficient taxes leads to bigger government by studying the introduction of withholding of the state personal income tax. We exploit the staggered adoption of withholding by individual states in the U.S. between 1948 and 1971 to construct a...

This Handbook entry presents a conceptual, normative overview of the subject of taxation. It emphasizes the relationships among the main functions of taxation—notably, raising revenue, redistributing income, and correcting externalities—and the mapping between these functions and various...

Tax reforms are crucial to promoting inclusive growth in India. The replacement of a myriad of consumption taxes by a Goods and Services Tax (GST) will boost India's competitiveness, investment, job creation and tax compliance. The potential to raise additional revenue from taxes on goods and...

Stricter tax enforcement can raise tax collections, finance public goods provision and lower the efficiency costs of raising taxes. We study these links in the context of the Ghost Buildings program: an anti-tax evasion policy that detected buildings not reported on land registry in Italy. Using...

This paper analyzes the effect of standard deductions on itemized deductions. Using German income tax data, it shows that the distribution of itemized deductions above the level of the standard deduction is positively skewed, with the mode lying somewhat above the standard deduction. This...