Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/68680 
Year of Publication: 
2012
Series/Report no.: 
Schumpeter Discussion Papers No. 2012-005
Publisher: 
University of Wuppertal, Schumpeter School of Business and Economics, Wuppertal
Abstract: 
The compliance costs of private taxpayers are not only affected by the tax law itself but also by its implementation through the tax authorities. In this paper we analyze the effect of the tax authorities on the burden of complying with tax regulations. Using survey data of Belgian businesses and controlling for potential endogeneity, we find empirical evidence that tax authority behavior is an important cost driver. According to our estimate, a customer-unfriendly tax administration increases the average compliance costs by about 25 %. Our outcome has interesting implications for tax compliance research. First of all, taxpayer services do not only affect 'soft' factors like fairness and trust, but also 'hard' aspects like costs. Furthermore, there may be an inherent ability of the administration to 'punish' non-cooperative businesses by in-creased cost-burdens.
Subjects: 
Tax compliance costs
Red tape
Tax administration
Tax compliance
Tax evasion
Tax authority behavior
JEL: 
H26
H25
H83
Persistent Identifier of the first edition: 
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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