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Audit Rule Disclosure and Tax Compliance

Author

Listed:
  • Enrico Di Gregorio

    (International Monetary Fund)

  • Matteo Paradisi

    (EIEF)

  • Elia Sartori

    (CSEF)

Abstract

We show that tax authorities can stimulate tax compliance by strategically releasing audit-relevant information. We focus on audit policies that disclose to taxpayers that audit risk discretely drops above a threshold determined by their predicted revenues. In a theoretical framework, we derive conditions for the existence of improvements over flat undisclosed audit rules, and we build a test for such improvements that relies on a change in the probability jump at the threshold. Our empirical analysis relies on the Sector Studies, an Italian policy with a disclosed threshold-based design. We leverage more than 26 million Sector Study files submitted between 2007 and 2016. First, we show that taxpayers bunch at the threshold to a great extent, and that this behavior is related to evasion proxies, availability of evasion technologies, and tax incentives. Then, we exploit a staggered Sector Studies reform that widens the initial audit risk discontinuity. In line with our theory, taxpayers who benefit from audit exemptions above the threshold reduce their relative compliance, while those below the threshold improve it. However, mean reported profits increase by 16.2% in treated sectors over six years, suggesting – in light of our test – that a disclosed rule performs better than an undisclosed one.

Suggested Citation

  • Enrico Di Gregorio & Matteo Paradisi & Elia Sartori, 2024. "Audit Rule Disclosure and Tax Compliance," CSEF Working Papers 729, Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy.
  • Handle: RePEc:sef:csefwp:729
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    File URL: https://www.csef.it/WP/wp729.pdf
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. M. Chatib Basri & Mayara Felix & Rema Hanna & Benjamin A. Olken, 2019. "Tax Administration vs. Tax Rates: Evidence from Corporate Taxation in Indonesia," NBER Working Papers 26150, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Henrik J. Kleven & Mazhar Waseem, 2013. "Using Notches to Uncover Optimization Frictions and Structural Elasticities: Theory and Evidence from Pakistan," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(2), pages 669-723.
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    tax compliance; enforcement; evasion; audit; disclosure; firm; bunching.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D04 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Microeconomic Policy: Formulation; Implementation; Evaluation
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm

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