IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/pubfin/v41y2013i3p275-301.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Strategic Tax Planning for State Tax Amnesties

Author

Listed:
  • Justin M. Ross
  • Neal D. Buckwalter

Abstract

Tax amnesty programs have exploded in popularity among cash-strapped states since the beginning of the Great Recession. Though many scholars have been interested in the long-term tax compliance effects after amnesty programs, this article is the first to consider short-run compliance effects just prior to a known amnesty—a moral hazard effect leading to strategic delinquencies. Evidence of this is detected from year-over-year tax revenue change in quarters just prior to an amnesty program. Regression analysis on pre-amnesty periods for state tax amnesty programs between 1982 and 2011 indicates that states experience higher pre-amnesty revenues when recent delinquents are excluded from amnesty participation. The point estimates from ordinary least squares (OLS) indicated that about 4.3 to 6.4 percent of an average amnesty’s recovery came from strategically delayed payments, whereas IV/2SLS put the range at 12.9 to 16.5 percent.

Suggested Citation

  • Justin M. Ross & Neal D. Buckwalter, 2013. "Strategic Tax Planning for State Tax Amnesties," Public Finance Review, , vol. 41(3), pages 275-301, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:41:y:2013:i:3:p:275-301
    DOI: 10.1177/1091142112461687
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1091142112461687
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1091142112461687?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alm, James & Beck, William, 1993. "Tax Amnesties and Compliance in the Long Run: A Time Series Analysis," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 46(1), pages 53-60, March.
    2. Andreoni, James, 1991. "The desirability of a permanent tax amnesty," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 143-159, July.
    3. Jeffrey A. Dubin & Michael J. Graetz & Louis L. Wilde, 1992. "State Income Tax Amnesties: Causes," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 107(3), pages 1057-1070.
    4. Marianne Bertrand & Esther Duflo & Sendhil Mullainathan, 2004. "How Much Should We Trust Differences-In-Differences Estimates?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 119(1), pages 249-275.
    5. Mikesell, John L. & Ross, Justin M., 2012. "Fast Money? The Contribution of State Tax Amnesties to Public Revenue Systems," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 65(3), pages 529-562, September.
    6. Inés Macho‐Stadler & Pau Olivella & David Pérez‐Castrillo, 1999. "Tax Amnesties In A Dynamic Model of Tax Evasion," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 1(4), pages 439-463, October.
    7. Mitchell A. Petersen, 2009. "Estimating Standard Errors in Finance Panel Data Sets: Comparing Approaches," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(1), pages 435-480, January.
    8. Alm, James & McKee, Michael J. & Beck, William, 1990. "Amazing Grace: Tax Amnesties and Compliance," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 43(1), pages 23-37, March.
    9. Stella, Peter, 1991. "An economic analysis of tax amnesties," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 383-400, December.
    10. Malik, Arun S. & Schwab, Robert M., 1991. "The economics of tax amnesties," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(1), pages 29-49, October.
    11. Allingham, Michael G. & Sandmo, Agnar, 1972. "Income tax evasion: a theoretical analysis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(3-4), pages 323-338, November.
    12. Alm, James & Beck, William, 1993. "Tax Amnesties and Compliance in the Long Run: A Time Series Analysis," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 46(1), pages 53-60, March.
    13. Alm, James & McKee, Michael J. & Beck, William, 1990. "Amazing Grace: Tax Amnesties and Compliance," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 43(1), pages 23-37, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michael Masiya, 2019. "Lessons from Voluntary Compliance Window (VCW): Malawi's tax amnesty programme," CESifo Working Paper Series 7584, CESifo.
    2. Bayer, Ralph-C. & Oberhofer, Harald & Winner, Hannes, 2015. "The occurrence of tax amnesties: Theory and evidence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 70-82.
    3. Neal D. Buckwalter & Nathan Y. Sharp & Jaron H. Wilde & David A. Wood, 2014. "Are State Tax Amnesty Programs Associated with Financial Reporting Irregularities?," Public Finance Review, , vol. 42(6), pages 774-799, November.
    4. Canavire-Bacarreza, Gustavo & Eguino, Huáscar & Heller, Lorena & Roman, Soraya, 2023. "When do tax amnesties work?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 207(C), pages 350-375.

    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. Koch, Christian & Müller, Cornelius, 2022. "Tax Amnesties and the Insurance Effect: An Experimental Study," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112991, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association, revised 2022.
    2. Lars Gläser & Martin Halla, 2008. "Die EU‐Zinsenrichtlinie: Ein Schuss in den Ofen?," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 9(1), pages 83-101, February.
    3. Gil, Patricia & Holz, Justin & List, John A. & Simon, Andrew & Zentner, Alejandro, 2024. "Toward an understanding of tax amnesty take-up: Evidence from a natural field experiment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 239(C).
    4. Patricia Gil & Justin Holz & John List & Andrew Simon & Alejandro Zentner, 2023. "Toward an Understanding of Tax Amnesties: Theory and Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment," Natural Field Experiments 00772, The Field Experiments Website.
    5. Mr. Eric Le Borgne, 2006. "Economic and Political Determinants of Tax Amnesties in the U.S. States," IMF Working Papers 2006/222, International Monetary Fund.
    6. Al-Karablieh, Yazan & Koumanakos, Evangelos & Stantcheva, Stefanie, 2021. "Clearing the bar: Improving tax compliance for small firms through target setting," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    7. Miguel A. SANCHEZ VILLALBA, 2017. "On the effects of repeated tax amnesties," Journal of Economics and Political Economy, KSP Journals, vol. 4(3), pages 285-301, September.
    8. Koch, Christian & Müller, Cornelius, 2024. "Tax amnesties and the insurance effect: An experimental study," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    9. Julio López Laborda & Fernando Rodrigo Sauco, "undated". "Incidencia de la amnistía fiscal de 1991 en el cumplimiento a largo plazo en el IRPF," Studies on the Spanish Economy 106, FEDEA.
    10. Matthew Gould & Matthew D. Rablen, 2020. "Voluntary disclosure schemes for offshore tax evasion," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(4), pages 805-831, August.
    11. Langenmayr, Dominika, 2017. "Voluntary disclosure of evaded taxes — Increasing revenue, or increasing incentives to evade?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 110-125.
    12. Bayer, Ralph-C. & Oberhofer, Harald & Winner, Hannes, 2015. "The occurrence of tax amnesties: Theory and evidence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 70-82.
    13. Terry Shevlin & Jacob Thornock & Braden Williams, 2017. "An examination of firms’ responses to tax forgiveness," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 577-607, June.
    14. Paul Dunn & Jonathan Farrar & Cass Hausserman, 2018. "The Influence of Guilt Cognitions on Taxpayers’ Voluntary Disclosures," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(3), pages 689-701, March.
    15. James Alm & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Sally Wallace, 2009. "Do Tax Amnesties Work? The Revenue Effects Of Tax Amnesties During The Transition In The Russian Federation," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 235-253, September.
    16. Hari Luitel & Mehmet Tosun, 2014. "A reexamination of state fiscal health and amnesty enactment," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(5), pages 874-893, October.
    17. Matthew Gould & Matthew Rablen, 2016. "Voluntary Disclosure Schemes for Offshore Tax Evasion: An Analysis," CESifo Working Paper Series 5750, CESifo.
    18. Maximiliano Lauletta & Felipe Montano Campos, 2024. "Is the forgiveness of a tax amnesty divine? Evidence from Argentina," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 31(5), pages 1229-1248, October.
    19. Norman Gemmell & Marisa Ratto, 2018. "The Effects of Penalty Information on Tax Compliance: Evidence from a New Zealand Field Experiment," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 71(3), pages 547-588, September.
    20. Bayer, Ralph-C. & Oberhofer, Harald & Winner, Hannes, 2015. "The occurrence of tax amnesties: Theory and evidence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 70-82.

    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:sae:pubfin:v:41:y:2013:i:3:p:275-301. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.