Download or read book The Causes and Consequences of Income Tax Noncompliance written by Jeffrey A. Dubin and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-12-02 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Taxpayer compliance is a voluntary activity, and the degree to which the tax system works is affected by taxpayers’ knowledge that it is their moral and legal responsibility to pay their taxes. Taxpayers also recognize that they face a lottery in which not all taxpayer noncompliance will ever be detected. In the United States most individuals comply with the tax law, yet the tax gap has grown significantly over time for individual taxpayers. The US Internal Revenue Service attempts to ensure that the minority of taxpayers who are noncompliant pay their fair share with a variety of enforcement tools and penalties. The Causes and Consequences of Income Tax Noncompliance provides a comprehensive summary of the empirical evidence concerning taxpayer noncompliance and presents innovative research with new results on the role of IRS audit and enforcements activities on compliance with federal and state income tax collection. Other issues examined include to what degree taxpayers respond to the threat of civil and criminal enforcement and the important role of the media on taxpayer compliance. This book offers researchers, students, and tax administrators insight into the allocation of taxpayer compliance enforcement and service resources, and suggests policies that will prevent further increases in the tax gap. The book’s aggregate data analysis methods have practical applications not only to taxpayer compliance but also to other forms of economic behavior, such as welfare fraud.
Download or read book The tax Gap and Taxpayer Noncompliance written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Ways and Means. Subcommittee on Oversight and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Tax compliance better compliance data and longterm goals would support a more strategic IRS approach to reducing the tax gap report to the Committee on Finance U S Senate written by and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Tax Gap written by Michael Brostek and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2012-10-18 with total page 25 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Do Audits Deter or Provoke Future Tax Noncompliance Evidence on Self employed Taxpayers written by Sebastian Beer and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2019-10-11 with total page 22 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper employs unique tax administrative data and operational audit information from a sample of approximately 7,500 self-employed U.S. taxpayers to investigate the effects of operational tax audits on future reporting behavior. Our estimates indicate that audits can have substantial deterrent or counter-deterrent effects. Among those taxpayers who receive an additional tax assessment, reported taxable income is estimated to be 64% higher in the first year after the audit than it would have been in the absence of the audit. In contrast, among those taxpayers who do not receive an additional tax assessment, reported taxable income is estimated to be approximately 15% lower the year after the audit than it would have been had the audit not taken place. Our results suggest that improved targeting of audits towards noncompliant taxpayers would not only yield more direct audit revenue, it would also pay dividends in terms of future tax collections.
Download or read book W H Ither the Tax Gap written by Jay A. Soled and published by . This book was released on 2017 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For decades, policy makers and politicians have railed against the “tax gap,” or the difference between what taxpayers are legally obligated to pay in taxes and what they actually pay in taxes. To close the gap, Congress has instituted numerous reforms, with varying degrees of success. Notwithstanding these efforts, the tax gap has largely remained intact, and, if anything, its size has gradually grown over the last several decades.However, the tax gap may well begin to diminish in size (or “wither” away), if not immediately then over time. Three developments will help narrow the tax gap's size. First, the ubiquity of credit cards, debit cards, and smartphone payment apps has purged cash--the erstwhile driving engine of the tax gap--from its use in many economic transactions. Second, the availability of third-party sources of information, combined with the universal use of computerization to store, access, and analyze information, has significantly curtailed a taxpayer's ability to hide income here in the United States or overseas. Third, broad economic trends such as concentration and globalization have generated a workforce dynamic in which taxpayers generally are employed by large business enterprises (where individual tax compliance is fairly high) rather than in traditional mom-and-pop businesses (where individual tax compliance is typically low).The implications associated with a lower tax gap are vast. Even beyond the usual considerations associated with greater tax compliance (e.g., increased revenues, reduced noncompliance-induced inefficiencies, and improved horizontal and vertical equity of tax burdens), taxpayers would experience a shift in the labor market and an adjustment in the prices paid for consumer goods and services. Also, rather than conducting audits and deterring noncompliance, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) would be able to dedicate a greater share of its limited resources to other pressing agenda items, such as assisting taxpayers in their compliance endeavors.There are, of course, other countervailing economic trends that may subvert the forces that will act to reduce the tax gap, so its future path remains highly uncertain (and hence the alternative use of “whither”). Also, for a whole host of reasons, especially reductions in IRS funding, the tax gap will not be closed anytime soon. Nevertheless, the tide against tax noncompliance may finally be turning.
Download or read book Further Research Into Noncompliance is Needed to Reduce Growing Tax Losses written by United States. General Accounting Office and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Taxpayer Compliance Volume 1 written by Jeffrey A. Roth and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2016-11-11 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Not everyone complies with the United States Internal Revenue Code. Many individuals and organizations fail to file timely tax returns, assess their tax liability correctly, or pay taxes when due. To improve compliance, tax administrators must choose among alternative strategies, such as increasing evaders' risks of punishment, motivating social norms, and making compliance easier. Concerned with these choices, the IRS asked the National Academy to assess previous research on the determinants of taxpayer compliance and to highlight the most promising areas for future research. The Academy's panel authored the two-volume Taxpayer Compliance. Volume I presents the panel's report, which critically reviews previous research on the subject, reaches conclusions about the findings, and recommends future research programs to fill gaps in knowledge. The report also recommends ways to maintain and develop the intellectual, financial, and data resources devoted to taxpayer compliance research. Volume I presents the panel's report, which critically reviews previous research on the subject, reaches conclusions about the findings and recommends future research programs to fill gaps in knowledge. The report also recommends ways to maintain and develop the intellectual, financial, and data resources devoted to taxpayer compliance research. Taxpayer Compliance will be a valuable reference for tax practitioners and others concerned with noncompliance problems, and for scholars and students of law and sociology, political science, social psychology, and economics.
Download or read book The Crisis in Tax Administration written by Henry Aaron and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2004-05-20 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: People pay taxes for two reasons. On the positive side, most people recognize, even if grudgingly, that payment of tax is a duty of citizenship. On the negative side, they know that the law requires payment, that evasion is a crime, and that willful failure to pay taxes is punishable by fines or imprisonment. The practical questions for tax administration are how to strengthen each of these motives to comply with the law. How much should be spent on enforcement and how should enforcement be organized to promote these objectives and achieve the best results per dollar spent? Over the last few years, the U.S. Congress has restricted spending on tax administration, forcing the Internal Revenue Service to curtail enforcement activities, at the same time, that the number of individual filers has increased, tax rules have become more complex, and more business have become multinational operations. But if too many cases of tax evasion go undetected and unpunished, those who may have grudgingly paid their taxes may soon find it easier to join the scofflaws. These events in combination have created a genuine crisis in tax administration. The chapters in this volume evaluate the capacity of authorities to enforce the tax laws in a modern, global economy and examine the implications of failing to do so. Specific aspects of tax law, including tax shelters, issues relating to small businesses, tax software, role of tax preparers, and the objectives of tax simplification are examined in detail. The volume also builds a conceptual basis for future scholarship, with regard not only to tax administration, but also to such fundamental questions as whether taxpayers respond mostly to economic incentives or are influenced by their experiences with the filing process and what is the proper framework for evaluating the allocation of resources within the IRS.
Download or read book The tax Gap and Taxpayer Noncompliance written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Ways and Means. Subcommittee on Oversight and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Revenue Administration Gap Analysis Program written by International Monetary and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2021-08-27 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is generally difficult to measure revenue not collected due to noncompliance, but a growing number of countries now regularly produce and publish estimated revenue losses. Good tax gap analysis enables the detection of changes in taxpayer behavior by consistent estimates over time. This Technical Note sets out the theoretical concepts for personal income tax (PIT) gap estimation, the different measurement approaches available, and their implications for the scope and presentation of statistics. The note also focuses on the practical steps for measuring the PIT gap by establishing a random audit program to collect data, and how to scale findings from the sample to the population.
Download or read book Tax Gap Tax Compliance and Proposed Legislation in the 112th Congress written by James M. Bickley and published by Createspace Independent Pub. This book was released on 2012-11-22 with total page 24 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent and projected large federal budget deficits and the need for revenue offsets under the Pay-As-You-Go Act (PAYGO) have generated congressional interest in the feasibility of increasing revenue by reducing the tax gap. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) defines the gross tax gap as the difference between the tax liability imposed by law for a given tax year and the amount of tax that taxpayers pay voluntarily and on time for that year. It defines the net tax gap as the amount of the gross tax gap that remains unpaid after all enforced and other late payments are made for the tax year. For tax (calendar) year 2006 (the most recent year for which data are available), the IRS estimated a gross tax gap of $450 billion, equal to a noncompliance rate of 16.9%. For the same tax year, IRS enforcement activities, coupled with other late payments, recovered about $65 billion of the gross tax gap, resulting in an estimated net tax gap of $385 billion. The estimated gross tax gap of $450 billion consisted of underreporting of tax liability ($376 billion), nonfiling of tax returns ($28 billion), and underpayment of taxes ($46 billion). (Taxes on illegal activities are excluded from these estimates.) Most of the underreporting of tax liability concerned underreporting of individual income liability ($235 billion). The percentage of individual income that was underreported varied significantly depending on the degree of information reporting and whether or not withholding was required. For the 2006 tax gap estimate, the IRS primarily utilized data from the National Research Program (NRP), which seeks to obtain the optimal balance among research quality, efficiency, and the reduction of taxpayer burden. Estimates of the gross tax gap have been heavily publicized; perhaps as a result, some public officials have emphasized better enforcement of tax laws in order to raise revenue. Three factors affect the dollar amount that can be collected by increased enforcement: some types of unreported income are difficult to detect, some of the detected tax liability cannot be easily collected, and many detected tax liabilities are small relative to enforcement costs. From FY2001 to FY2011, enforcement revenues collected by the IRS increased from $33.8 billion to $55.2 billion. Also from FY2001 to FY2011, IRS staffing for key enforcement occupations rose from 20,203 to 22,184. Over the past four years, the IRS has focused on six strategy priorities: technology modernization, tax return preparers, data analytics, taxpayer service, offshore tax evasion, and workforce job satisfaction. The pursuit of most of these priorities reduces the tax gap. The IRS has put in place the major facets of its tax return preparer initiative. In the 112th Congress, legislation concerning tax compliance has been introduced in the following seven areas: repeal of the 1099 reporting requirement (H.R. 4); identity theft (S. 1534, S. 3432, H.R. 3215, H.R. 3482, and H.R. 6205); free file (S. 1796 and H.R. 2569); contracting (H.R. 829); insurance companies (S. 1693 and H.R. 3157); tax havens (S. 1346, H.R. 2669, S. 2075, and H.R. 3338); and tax avoidance by expatriates (S. 3205).
Download or read book Taxpayer Compliance Volume 1 written by Jeffrey A. Roth and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 1989-06-29 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on multiple disciplines with a significant interest in taxpayer compliance, Volume I critically reviews previous research on the subject, reaches conclusions and recommends future research programs to fill gaps in knowledge.
Download or read book Why People Pay Taxes written by Joel Slemrod and published by . This book was released on 1992 with total page 361 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Experts discuss strategies for curtailing tax evasion
Download or read book Tax Gap Tax Compliance and Proposed Legislation in the 112th Congress written by James Bickley and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2012-11-22 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent and projected large federal budget deficits and the need for revenue offsets under the Pay-As-You-Go Act (PAYGO) have generated congressional interest in the feasibility of increasing revenue by reducing the tax gap. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) defines the gross tax gap as the difference between the tax liability imposed by law for a given tax year and the amount of tax that taxpayers pay voluntarily and on time for that year. It defines the net tax gap as the amount of the gross tax gap that remains unpaid after all enforced and other late payments are made for the tax year. For tax (calendar) year 2006 (the most recent year for which data are available), the IRS estimated a gross tax gap of $450 billion, equal to a noncompliance rate of 16.9%. For the same tax year, IRS enforcement activities, coupled with other late payments, recovered about $65 billion of the gross tax gap, resulting in an estimated net tax gap of $385 billion. The estimated gross tax gap of $450 billion consisted of underreporting of tax liability ($376 billion), nonfiling of tax returns ($28 billion), and underpayment of taxes ($46 billion). (Taxes on illegal activities are excluded from these estimates.) Most of the underreporting of tax liability concerned underreporting of individual income liability ($235 billion). The percentage of individual income that was underreported varied significantly depending on the degree of information reporting and whether or not withholding was required. For the 2006 tax gap estimate, the IRS primarily utilized data from the National Research Program (NRP), which seeks to obtain the optimal balance among research quality, efficiency, and the reduction of taxpayer burden. Estimates of the gross tax gap have been heavily publicized; perhaps as a result, some public officials have emphasized better enforcement of tax laws in order to raise revenue. Three factors affect the dollar amount that can be collected by increased enforcement: some types of unreported income are difficult to detect, some of the detected tax liability cannot be easily collected, and many detected tax liabilities are small relative to enforcement costs. From FY2001 to FY2011, enforcement revenues collected by the IRS increased from $33.8 billion to $55.2 billion. Also from FY2001 to FY2011, IRS staffing for key enforcement occupations rose from 20,203 to 22,184. Over the past four years, the IRS has focused on six strategy priorities: technology modernization, tax return preparers, data analytics, taxpayer service, offshore tax evasion, and workforce job satisfaction. The pursuit of most of these priorities reduces the tax gap. The IRS has put in place the major facets of its tax return preparer initiative. In the 112th Congress, legislation concerning tax compliance has been introduced in the following seven areas: repeal of the 1099 reporting requirement (H.R. 4); identity theft (S. 1534, S. 3432, H.R. 3215, H.R. 3482, and H.R. 6205); free file (S. 1796 and H.R. 2569); contracting (H.R. 829); insurance companies (S. 1693 and H.R. 3157); tax havens (S. 1346, H.R. 2669, S. 2075, and H.R. 3338); and tax avoidance by expatriates (S. 3205).
Download or read book Designing a Tax Administration Reform Strategy written by Ms.Katherine Baer and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1997-03-01 with total page 37 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Building on previous FAD work in the tax administration field, this paper defines broad criteria for diagnosing the problems in a country’s tax administration and formulating an appropriate reform strategy. To be effective, this strategy should be based on the size of the tax gap and the country’s particular circumstances. This paper discusses some guiding principles which have provided the basis for successful reforms, including: reducing the tax system’s complexity, encouraging taxpayers’ voluntary compliance, differentiating the treatment of taxpayers by their revenue potential, and ensuring the reform’s effective management. Also discussed are specific bottlenecks that hinder the effectiveness of the tax administration’s operations.
Download or read book Tax Gap and Tax Enforcement written by and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent and projected large federal budget deficits have generated congressional interest in the feasibility of raising revenue by reducing the tax gap. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) defines the gross tax gap as "the difference between the aggregate tax liability imposed by law for a given tax year and the amount of tax that taxpayers pay voluntarily and timely for that year." "The net gap is the amount of the gross tax gap that remains unpaid after all enforced and other late payments are made for the tax year." For tax (calendar) year 2001, the IRS estimates a gross tax gap of $345 billion, equal to a noncompliance rate of 16.3%. For the same tax year, IRS enforcement activities, coupled with other late payments, recovered about $55 billion of the gross tax gap, resulting in a net tax gap of $290 billion. The estimated gross tax gap of $345 billion consists of underreporting of tax liability ($285 billion), nonfiling of tax returns ($27 billion), and underpayment of taxes ($33 billion). (Taxes on illegal activities are excluded from these estimates.) The $285 billion of underreporting of tax liability has the following components: $197 billion of individual income tax, $54 billion in employment tax, $30 billion in corporate income tax, and $4 billion in estate taxes. The IRS has replaced the Taxpayer Compliance Measurement Program -- a systematic approach for estimating the tax gap -- with the National Research Program (NRP). One of the guiding principles for the NRP is to minimize the compliance burden on those taxpayers selected in the NRP sample. The new methodology of the NRP was applied to the underreporting gap for the individual income tax for tax year 2001. The estimates of the gross tax gap have been heavily publicized; perhaps as a result, some public officials have emphasized better enforcement of tax laws in order to raise revenue. Three factors limit the dollar amount that can be collected by increased enforcement. First, much of the gross tax gap for individual income tax filers is due to types of unreported income that are difficult to detect. Second, some of the detected tax liability cannot be easily collected, particularly from those taxpayers who are currently unable to pay. Third, many detected tax liabilities are so small relative to enforcement costs that it is not cost-effective to pursue collection. From fiscal years 2001 to 2006, greater tax enforcement efforts by the IRS increased enforcement revenue from $33.8 billion to $48.7 billion. The IRS is attempting to reduce the gross tax gap by pursuing a strategy, which has seven components: reduce opportunities for evasion, make a multi-year commitment to research, continue improvements in information technology, improve compliance activities, enhance taxpayer service, reform and simplify the tax law, and coordinate with partners and stakeholders. This report will be updated as issues develop or new legislation is introduced.
