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Tax Compliance by Firms and Audit Policy

Author

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  • Ralph-C Bayer

    (School of Economics, University of Adelaide)

  • Frank Cowell

Abstract

Firms are usually better informed than tax authorities about market conditions and the potential profits of competitors. They may try to exploit this situation by under-reporting their own taxable profits. The tax authority could offset firms' informational advantage by adopting "smarter" audit policies that take into account the relationship between a firm's reported profits and reports for the industry as a whole. Such an audit policy will create an externality for the decision makers in the industry and this externality can be expected to affect not only firms' reporting policies but also their market decisions. If public policy takes into account wider economic issues than just revenue raising what is the appropriate way for a tax authority to run suchhttps://media.adelaide.edu.au/economics/ rules in a standard model of an industry and show the effect of these rules using simulations.

Suggested Citation

  • Ralph-C Bayer & Frank Cowell, 2010. "Tax Compliance by Firms and Audit Policy," School of Economics and Public Policy Working Papers 2010-23, University of Adelaide, School of Economics and Public Policy.
    • Handle: RePEc:adl:wpaper:2010-23
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    File URL: http://www.economics.adelaide.edu.au/research/papers/doc/wp2010-23.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Laszlo Goerke, 2021. "Tax Evasion by Firms," IAAEU Discussion Papers 202104, Institute of Labour Law and Industrial Relations in the European Union (IAAEU).
    2. Luciano Fanti & Domenico Buccella, 2022. "Indirect Taxation, Tax Evasion and Profts," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 242(3), pages 91-109, September.
    3. Ralph‐C. Bayer, 2022. "The double dividend of relative auditing—Theory and experiments on corporate tax enforcement," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 24(6), pages 1433-1462, December.
    4. Ralph-C. Bayer, 2017. "The Double Dividend of Relative Auditing – Theory and Experiments on Corporate Tax Enforcement," School of Economics and Public Policy Working Papers 2017-14, University of Adelaide, School of Economics and Public Policy.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    tax compliance; evasion; oligopoly;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • H21 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Efficiency; Optimal Taxation

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