Casting the Tax Net Wider : Experimental Evidence from Costa Rica

Brockmeyer, Anne ; Hernandez, Marco ; Kettle, Stewart ; Smith, Spencer

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: informality;    tax evasion;    firms;    tax enforcement;    tax compliance;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-7850
RP-ID  :  WPS7850

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

The majority of firms in developingcountries are informal, and encouraging them to registerwith the tax authority has proven challenging and costly.This paper argues that incomplete tax filing amongregistered firms constitutes an important intermediate formof informality, which can be tackled with much highercost-effectiveness. Using a nationwide randomized experimentin Costa Rica, The paper shows that credible enforcementemails tripled the income tax filing rate and doubled thepayment rate among previously non-filing firms. Thetreatment effect was even higher when the email listedexamples of third-party reports of a firm'stransactions, with the return on an email reaching US$ 19.It also shows that the intervention had no negativespillovers on other tax compliance dimensions, the treatmenteffects persisted in the medium term, and treated firmsbecame more likely to file information reports about theirsuppliers or clients, thereby increasing the taxauthorities' information set for future tax enforcement.