Tax Audits Evaluation
09 December 2020
12.30 - 16.30 GMT
Tax administrations rely on audits as a tool to promoting and enforcing tax compliance. But, how effective are audits in enhancing compliance? Do they deter or enhance tax noncompliance? Do they affect subsequent tax payment behaviour by the audited taxpayers? Does their impact vary depending on the audited tax base (VAT/CIT/PIT)?
Besides this direct specific deterrence effect on audited taxpayers, audits may also have an indirect (general) effect on taxpayers that did not experience an audit. This raises the issue regarding the extent to which audits affect compliance behaviour of those taxpayers who belong to the network of the audited taxpayer.
Recently tax administrations started to rely on different types of tax enforcement examinations including correspondence or desk based audits and issue related audits in addition to the more traditional face-to-face or comprehensive audits, but little is known of their impact.
These are some of the important issues this TARC workshop addressed. Speakers included Brian Erard, Jason DeBacker (University of South Carolina), and Christos Genakos (Cambridge University and AUEB) among others.
Speaker presentations can be downloaded by following the links below:
Workshop Programme
12.30 - 13.00: Do Think Twice, it´s Alright: Effects and Mechanisms of Tax Enforcement Policies
Oddbjørn Raaum; Ragnar Frisch Centre for Economic Research, Norway
13:10 - 13:40: A framework for the evaluation of preemptive tax administration policies
Alessandro Santoro, Università Bicocca Milano, Italy
13:50 - 14:20: You've Got Mail: The Specific Deterrence Implications of Increased Reliance on Correspondence Audits
Brian Erard, B. Erard & Associates, USA
14:40 - 15:10: Do CIT Audits Deter Non-Compliance? Preliminary Evidence from Rwanda
Luca Salvadori, TARC & University of Exeter - Business School
15:20 - 15:50: Professional Advice: The Effects of Tax Preparers on Compliance
Jason DeBacker, University of South Carolina, USA
16:00 - 16:30: Audits and compliance: Evidence from administrative data
Christos Genakos, Cambridge Judge Business School; University of Cambridge