IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/kap/itaxpf/v31y2024i1d10.1007_s10797-023-09810-z.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Encouraging digital tax tools as a response to Covid: evidence from Eswatini

Author

Listed:
  • Fabrizio Santoro

    (Institute of Development Studies)

  • Razan Amine

    (University of Cambridge)

  • Tanele Magongo

    (Eswatini Revenue Service)

Abstract

Many tax authorities changed the mode of interacting with taxpayers from physical to online as a response to the Covid-19 pandemic. We study the effect of the e-tax-filing in Eswatini, using a difference-in-difference and propensity score methods that exploit the limited take-up of e-tax filing. We present three sets of results. First, larger and more IT-sophisticated firms are more likely to adopt e-Tax. Second, after adoption, e-Tax has mixed results on filing behavior and reporting accuracy. Third, companies remit less tax after adoption e-tax-filing.

Suggested Citation

  • Fabrizio Santoro & Razan Amine & Tanele Magongo, 2024. "Encouraging digital tax tools as a response to Covid: evidence from Eswatini," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 31(1), pages 95-135, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:itaxpf:v:31:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s10797-023-09810-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s10797-023-09810-z
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10797-023-09810-z
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10797-023-09810-z?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anna Kochanova & Zahid Hasnain & Bradley Larson, 2020. "Does E-Government Improve Government Capacity? Evidence from Tax Compliance Costs, Tax Revenue, and Public Procurement Competitiveness," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 34(1), pages 101-120.
    2. Emerta Aragie & Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse & James Thurlow, 2021. "The short‐term economywide impacts of COVID‐19 in Africa: Insights from Ethiopia," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 33(S1), pages 152-164, April.
    3. Paul Carrillo & Dina Pomeranz & Monica Singhal, 2017. "Dodging the Taxman: Firm Misreporting and Limits to Tax Enforcement," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 144-164, April.
    4. World Bank, 2015. "World Development Indicators 2015," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 21634.
    5. repec:idq:ictduk:15915 is not listed on IDEAS
    6. repec:idq:ictduk:16468 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Maria Jouste & Milly Isingoma Nalukwago & Ronald Waiswa, 2021. "Do tax administrative interventions targeted at small businesses improve tax compliance and revenue collection?: Evidence from Ugandan administrative tax data," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-17, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Youssef Benzarti, 2020. "How Taxing Is Tax Filing? Using Revealed Preferences to Estimate Compliance Costs," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 12(4), pages 38-57, November.
    9. repec:idq:ictduk:16603 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. Santoro, Fabrizio, 2021. "To file or not to file? Another dimension of tax compliance - the Eswatini Taxpayers’ survey," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    11. repec:idq:ictduk:11180 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Mascagni, Giulia & Mengistu, Andualem T. & Woldeyes, Firew B., 2021. "Can ICTs increase tax compliance? Evidence on taxpayer responses to technological innovation in Ethiopia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 172-193.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Okunogbe,Oyebola Motunrayo & Santoro,Fabrizio, 2021. "The Promise and Limitations of Information Technology for Tax Mobilization," Policy Research Working Paper Series 9848, The World Bank.
    2. Oyebola Okunogbe & Fabrizio Santoro, 2023. "Increasing Tax Collection in African Countries: The Role of Information Technology," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 32(Supplemen), pages 57-83.
    3. Okunogbe,Oyebola Motunrayo & Santoro,Fabrizio, 2022. "Increasing Tax Collection in African Countries : The Role of Information Technology," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10182, The World Bank.
    4. Fabrizio Santoro & Ronald Waiswa, 2024. "How to improve tax compliance by wealthy individuals? Evidence from Uganda," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 42(2), March.
    5. Simeon Schächtele, 2020. "Tax Responses at Low Taxable Incomes: Evidence from Germany," Fiscal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(2), pages 411-439, June.
    6. Apeti, Ablam Estel & Edoh, Eyah Denise, 2023. "Tax revenue and mobile money in developing countries," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    7. Kotakorpi, Kaisa & Nurminen, Tuomas & Miettinen, Topi & Metsälampi, Satu, 2024. "Bearing the burden — Implications of tax reporting institutions on evasion and incidence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 220(C), pages 81-134.
    8. Kaisa Kotakorpiⓡ & Tuomas Nurminenⓡ & Topi Miettinen ⓡ & Satu Metsälampiⓡ & Kaisa Kotakorpi, 2022. "Bearing the Burden - Implications of Tax Reporting Institutions and Image Concerns on Evasion and Incidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 9791, CESifo.
    9. Santoro, Fabrizio & Mascagni, Giulia, 2023. "Visual nudges: How deterrence and equity shape tax attitudes and behaviour in Rwanda," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    10. Philippe Aghion & Maxime Gravoueille & Matthieu Lequien & Stefanie Stantcheva, 2017. "Tax Simplicity or Simplicity of Evasion? Evidence from Self-Employment Taxes in France," NBER Working Papers 24049, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Yogama, Eko Arief & Gray, Daniel J. & Rablen, Matthew D., 2024. "Nudging for prompt tax penalty payment: Evidence from a field experiment in Indonesia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 224(C), pages 548-579.
    12. Giulia Mascagni & Roel Dom & Fabrizio Santoro & Denis Mukama, 2023. "The VAT in practice: equity, enforcement, and complexity," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 30(2), pages 525-563, April.
    13. Kaisa Kotakorpi & Tuomas Nurminen & Topi Miettinen & Satu Metsälampi, 2022. "Bearing the burden – Implications of tax reporting institutions and image concerns on evasion and incidence," Working Papers 3, Finnish Centre of Excellence in Tax Systems Research.
    14. Bohne, Albrecht & Nimczik, Jan Sebastian, 2018. "Information Frictions and Learning Dynamics: Evidence from Tax Avoidance in Ecuador," IZA Discussion Papers 11536, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    15. Jan Fagerberg & Bengt-Åke Lundvall & Martin Srholec, 2018. "Global Value Chains, National Innovation Systems and Economic Development," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 30(3), pages 533-556, July.
    16. Cyril Chalendard, 2015. "Use of internal information, external information acquisition and customs underreporting," Working Papers halshs-01179445, HAL.
    17. Simplice A. Asongu & Nicholas M. Odhiambo, 2019. "Governance, capital flight and industrialisation in Africa," Journal of Economic Structures, Springer;Pan-Pacific Association of Input-Output Studies (PAPAIOS), vol. 8(1), pages 1-22, December.
    18. Philippe Aghion & Ufuk Akcigit & Matthieu Lequien & Stefanie Stantcheva, 2017. "Tax simplicity and heterogeneous learning," CEP Discussion Papers dp1516, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    19. Klotz, Richard & Gurung, Ram & Ogle, Stephen & Paustian, Keith & Sheehan, John & Bento, Antonio M., 2015. "Evaluating Policy Options to Reduce N2O Emissions from US Agriculture," 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California 205808, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Richard Chisik & Nazanin Behzadan & Harun Onder & Apurva Sanghi, 2016. "Aid, Remittances, the Dutch Disease, Refugees, and Kenya," Working Papers 062, Toronto Metropolitan University, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tax administration; Tax compliance; Technology adoption;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O23 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Fiscal and Monetary Policy in Development
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:kap:itaxpf:v:31:y:2024:i:1:d:10.1007_s10797-023-09810-z. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.