Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/273897 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
WIDER Working Paper No. 2022/103
Publisher: 
The United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER), Helsinki
Abstract: 
This paper studies the effectiveness of tax amnesties and their impacts on capital taxation and public spending. We leverage rich policy variation from Argentina, where left- and right-wing governments implemented multiple programmes and achieved varying success. After numerous failed enforcement efforts, its 2016 scheme reportedly revealed assets worth 21 per cent of GDP-the world's most successful tax amnesty. We use detailed data from fiscal tabulations spanning two decades and obtain three key results. First, despite substantial offshore tax evasion, declared foreign assets quadrupled after the 2016 amnesty. Second, disclosures were extensive among the wealthiest 0.1 per cent of individuals, who more than doubled their declared assets. Third, improving tax compliance has sizeable fiscal externalities on capital taxes and social transfers: the wealth and capital income tax bases more than doubled, and the amnesty's earmarked revenue boosted pension benefits by 15 per cent. We conclude by discussing the lessons from Argentina's experience with amnesty programmes.
Subjects: 
tax evasion
amnesties
enforcement
Argentina
JEL: 
D31
H26
H31
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
ISBN: 
978-92-9267-237-9
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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