Tax Evasion, Corruption, and the Remuneration of Heterogeneous Inspectors

The author develops a general model for addressing the question of how to compensate tax inspectors in an economy where corruption is pervasive - a model that considers the existence of strategic transmission of information. Most of the literature...

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Main Author: Wane, Waly
Format: Policy Research Working Paper
Language:English
en_US
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2014
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2000/07/443640/tax-evasion-corruption-remuneration-heterogeneous-inspectors
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19822
id okr-10986-19822
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-198222021-04-23T14:03:46Z Tax Evasion, Corruption, and the Remuneration of Heterogeneous Inspectors Wane, Waly ACCOUNT ADVERSE SELECTION ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION AUDITING AUDITORS AUDITS BENCHMARK COLLUSION DISPOSABLE INCOME DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME EQUILIBRIUM EQUILIBRIUM ANALYSIS EXPECTED UTILITY EXPECTED VALUE INCOME INSPECTORS MARGINAL COST MORAL HAZARD OPTIMIZATION PRIVATE INFORMATION REPORTING RISK NEUTRAL SIGNALING TAX ADMINISTRATION TAX COLLECTION TAX COMPLIANCE TAX REVENUES TOTAL REVENUE The author develops a general model for addressing the question of how to compensate tax inspectors in an economy where corruption is pervasive - a model that considers the existence of strategic transmission of information. Most of the literature on corruption assumes that the taxpayer and the tax inspector jointly decide on the income to report, which also determines the size of the bribe. In contrast, this model considers the more realistic case in which the taxpayer unilaterally chooses the income to report. The tax inspector cannot change the report and is faced with a binary choice: either he negotiates the bribe on the basis of the income report or he denounces the tax evader and therefore renounces the bribe. In his model, the optimal compensation scheme must take into account the strategic interaction between taxpayers and tax inspectors: a) Pure "tax farming" (paying tax inspectors a share of their tax collections) is optimal only when all tax inspectors are corruptible. b) When there are both honest and corruptible inspectors, the optimal compensation scheme lies between pure tax farming and a pure wage scheme. c) Paradoxically, when inspectors are hired beforehand, it may be optimal to offer contracts that attract corruptible inspectors but not honest ones. 2014-08-28T17:54:54Z 2014-08-28T17:54:54Z 2000-07 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2000/07/443640/tax-evasion-corruption-remuneration-heterogeneous-inspectors http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19822 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 2394 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
en_US
topic ACCOUNT
ADVERSE SELECTION
ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION
AUDITING
AUDITORS
AUDITS
BENCHMARK
COLLUSION
DISPOSABLE INCOME
DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME
EQUILIBRIUM
EQUILIBRIUM ANALYSIS
EXPECTED UTILITY
EXPECTED VALUE
INCOME
INSPECTORS
MARGINAL COST
MORAL HAZARD
OPTIMIZATION
PRIVATE INFORMATION
REPORTING
RISK NEUTRAL
SIGNALING
TAX ADMINISTRATION
TAX COLLECTION
TAX COMPLIANCE
TAX REVENUES
TOTAL REVENUE
spellingShingle ACCOUNT
ADVERSE SELECTION
ASYMMETRIC INFORMATION
AUDITING
AUDITORS
AUDITS
BENCHMARK
COLLUSION
DISPOSABLE INCOME
DISTRIBUTION OF INCOME
EQUILIBRIUM
EQUILIBRIUM ANALYSIS
EXPECTED UTILITY
EXPECTED VALUE
INCOME
INSPECTORS
MARGINAL COST
MORAL HAZARD
OPTIMIZATION
PRIVATE INFORMATION
REPORTING
RISK NEUTRAL
SIGNALING
TAX ADMINISTRATION
TAX COLLECTION
TAX COMPLIANCE
TAX REVENUES
TOTAL REVENUE
Wane, Waly
Tax Evasion, Corruption, and the Remuneration of Heterogeneous Inspectors
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 2394
description The author develops a general model for addressing the question of how to compensate tax inspectors in an economy where corruption is pervasive - a model that considers the existence of strategic transmission of information. Most of the literature on corruption assumes that the taxpayer and the tax inspector jointly decide on the income to report, which also determines the size of the bribe. In contrast, this model considers the more realistic case in which the taxpayer unilaterally chooses the income to report. The tax inspector cannot change the report and is faced with a binary choice: either he negotiates the bribe on the basis of the income report or he denounces the tax evader and therefore renounces the bribe. In his model, the optimal compensation scheme must take into account the strategic interaction between taxpayers and tax inspectors: a) Pure "tax farming" (paying tax inspectors a share of their tax collections) is optimal only when all tax inspectors are corruptible. b) When there are both honest and corruptible inspectors, the optimal compensation scheme lies between pure tax farming and a pure wage scheme. c) Paradoxically, when inspectors are hired beforehand, it may be optimal to offer contracts that attract corruptible inspectors but not honest ones.
format Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
author Wane, Waly
author_facet Wane, Waly
author_sort Wane, Waly
title Tax Evasion, Corruption, and the Remuneration of Heterogeneous Inspectors
title_short Tax Evasion, Corruption, and the Remuneration of Heterogeneous Inspectors
title_full Tax Evasion, Corruption, and the Remuneration of Heterogeneous Inspectors
title_fullStr Tax Evasion, Corruption, and the Remuneration of Heterogeneous Inspectors
title_full_unstemmed Tax Evasion, Corruption, and the Remuneration of Heterogeneous Inspectors
title_sort tax evasion, corruption, and the remuneration of heterogeneous inspectors
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2014
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2000/07/443640/tax-evasion-corruption-remuneration-heterogeneous-inspectors
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/19822
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