Targeting in Tax Compliance Interventions : Experimental Evidence from Honduras

Tax authorities often use low-cost communication with taxpayers to encourage voluntary compliance and avoid other costly interventions. This paper reports findings from an experiment with more than 30,000 taxpayers in Honduras, designed to assess h...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors:	Del Carmen, Giselle, Espinal Hernandez, Edgardo Enrique, De Gouvea Scot De Arruda, Thiago
Format:	Working Paper
Language:	English
Published:	Washington, DC: World Bank 2022
Subjects:	TAX AUTHORITY DEVELOPMENT IMPACT EVALUATION INCOME TAX DECLARATION INTERNATIONAL GOOD PRACTICE INCOME TAX FILING INCOME TAX LIABILITY
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/653411647279081382/Targeting-in-Tax-Compliance-Interventions-Experimental-Evidence-from-Honduras http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37155

id	okr-10986-37155
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-371552022-03-18T05:10:39Z Targeting in Tax Compliance Interventions : Experimental Evidence from Honduras Del Carmen, Giselle Espinal Hernandez, Edgardo Enrique De Gouvea Scot De Arruda, Thiago TAX AUTHORITY DEVELOPMENT IMPACT EVALUATION INCOME TAX DECLARATION INTERNATIONAL GOOD PRACTICE INCOME TAX FILING INCOME TAX LIABILITY Tax authorities often use low-cost communication with taxpayers to encourage voluntary compliance and avoid other costly interventions. This paper reports findings from an experiment with more than 30,000 taxpayers in Honduras, designed to assess how taxpayers with different risk scores respond to a communication intervention. Across several outcomes, the average effect of the intervention on compliance was 0. Contrary to the expectation of experts surveyed, only taxpayers considered to be at low risk of noncompliance increase their filing and reported income. Using rich administrative data and a causal forest algorithm, the paper finds that ex-ante predicted risk and responsiveness to the intervention are negatively correlated. These findings can inform the design of targeted interventions by tax authorities. 2022-03-17T17:41:43Z 2022-03-17T17:41:43Z 2022-03-14 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/653411647279081382/Targeting-in-Tax-Compliance-Interventions-Experimental-Evidence-from-Honduras http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37155 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank Washington, DC: World Bank Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research Latin America & Caribbean Honduras
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English
topic	TAX AUTHORITY DEVELOPMENT IMPACT EVALUATION INCOME TAX DECLARATION INTERNATIONAL GOOD PRACTICE INCOME TAX FILING INCOME TAX LIABILITY
spellingShingle	TAX AUTHORITY DEVELOPMENT IMPACT EVALUATION INCOME TAX DECLARATION INTERNATIONAL GOOD PRACTICE INCOME TAX FILING INCOME TAX LIABILITY Del Carmen, Giselle Espinal Hernandez, Edgardo Enrique De Gouvea Scot De Arruda, Thiago Targeting in Tax Compliance Interventions : Experimental Evidence from Honduras
geographic_facet	Latin America & Caribbean Honduras
description	Tax authorities often use low-cost communication with taxpayers to encourage voluntary compliance and avoid other costly interventions. This paper reports findings from an experiment with more than 30,000 taxpayers in Honduras, designed to assess how taxpayers with different risk scores respond to a communication intervention. Across several outcomes, the average effect of the intervention on compliance was 0. Contrary to the expectation of experts surveyed, only taxpayers considered to be at low risk of noncompliance increase their filing and reported income. Using rich administrative data and a causal forest algorithm, the paper finds that ex-ante predicted risk and responsiveness to the intervention are negatively correlated. These findings can inform the design of targeted interventions by tax authorities.
format	Working Paper
author	Del Carmen, Giselle Espinal Hernandez, Edgardo Enrique De Gouvea Scot De Arruda, Thiago
author_facet	Del Carmen, Giselle Espinal Hernandez, Edgardo Enrique De Gouvea Scot De Arruda, Thiago
author_sort	Del Carmen, Giselle
title	Targeting in Tax Compliance Interventions : Experimental Evidence from Honduras
title_short	Targeting in Tax Compliance Interventions : Experimental Evidence from Honduras
title_full	Targeting in Tax Compliance Interventions : Experimental Evidence from Honduras
title_fullStr	Targeting in Tax Compliance Interventions : Experimental Evidence from Honduras
title_full_unstemmed	Targeting in Tax Compliance Interventions : Experimental Evidence from Honduras
title_sort	targeting in tax compliance interventions : experimental evidence from honduras
publisher	Washington, DC: World Bank
publishDate	2022
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/653411647279081382/Targeting-in-Tax-Compliance-Interventions-Experimental-Evidence-from-Honduras http://hdl.handle.net/10986/37155
_version_	1764486634591485952

Targeting in Tax Compliance Interventions : Experimental Evidence from Honduras

Similar Items