IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecmode/v39y2014icp151-162.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tax evasion in Kenya and Tanzania: Evidence from missing imports

Author

Listed:
  • Levin, Jörgen
  • Widell, Lars M.

Abstract

In this paper we estimate the amount of tax evasion in customs authorities in both Kenya and Tanzania by calculating measurement errors in reported trade flows between the two countries and correlate those errors with tax rates. We find that the measurement error is correlated with the tax rates in Tanzania. We also introduced a third country into our analysis, the United Kingdom, and tax evasion seems to be more severe in trade flows between Kenya and Tanzania compared to trade flows between the United Kingdom and Kenya/Tanzania. Finally we also find that the tax evasion coefficient is lower in the Kenya–United Kingdom case compared to the Tanzanian–United Kingdom case which suggests that tax evasion is more severe in the Tanzanian customs authority.

Suggested Citation

  • Levin, Jörgen & Widell, Lars M., 2014. "Tax evasion in Kenya and Tanzania: Evidence from missing imports," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 151-162.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:39:y:2014:i:c:p:151-162
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econmod.2014.02.021
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264999314000650
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econmod.2014.02.021?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to look for a different version below or search for a different version of it.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Javorcik, Beata S. & Narciso, Gaia, 2008. "Differentiated products and evasion of import tariffs," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 76(2), pages 208-222, December.
    2. Marrelli, Massimo, 1984. "On indirect tax evasion," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(1-2), pages 181-196, November.
    3. Slemrod, Joel & Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 2002. "Tax avoidance, evasion, and administration," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 3, chapter 22, pages 1423-1470, Elsevier.
    4. Crocker, Keith J. & Slemrod, Joel, 2005. "Corporate tax evasion with agency costs," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(9-10), pages 1593-1610, September.
    5. Raymond Fisman & Shang-Jin Wei, 2004. "Tax Rates and Tax Evasion: Evidence from "Missing Imports" in China," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(2), pages 471-500, April.
    6. Antoine Bouët & Devesh Roy, 2012. "Trade protection and tax evasion: Evidence from Kenya, Mauritius, and Nigeria," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 287-320, April.
    7. Marrelli, M. & Martina, R., 1988. "Tax evasion and strategic behaviour of the firms," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 55-69, October.
    8. Oliver Morrissey & Chris Jones, 2008. "Missed Opportunities: The WTO Trade Policy Review for the East African Community," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(11), pages 1409-1432, November.
    9. Pritchett, Lant & Sethi, Geeta, 1994. "Tariff Rates, Tariff Revenue, and Tariff Reform: Some New Facts," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 8(1), pages 1-16, January.
    10. Kong-Pin Chen & C.Y. Cyrus Chu, 2005. "Internal Control vs. External Manipulation: A Model of Corporate Income Tax Evasion," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 36(4), pages 151-164, Winter.
    11. Allingham, Michael G. & Sandmo, Agnar, 1972. "Income tax evasion: a theoretical analysis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(3-4), pages 323-338, November.
    12. Joao Ernesto Van Dunem & Channing Arndt, 2009. "Estimating Border Tax Evasion in Mozambique," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 45(6), pages 1010-1025.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cyril Chalendard, 2015. "Use of internal information, external information acquisition and customs underreporting," Working Papers halshs-01179445, HAL.
    2. Lorenzo Rotunno & Pierre-Louis Vézina, 2012. "Chinese Networks and Tariff Evasion," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(12), pages 1772-1794, December.
    3. Joël CARIOLLE & Cyril CHALENDARD & Anne-Marie GEOURJON & Bertrand LAPORTE, 2017. "Going beyond analysis of internal data to support customs modernization: a case study in Gabon," Working Papers P173, FERDI.
    4. Ronald B. Davies & Zuzanna Studnicka, 2022. "Tariff Evasion, the Trade Gap, and Structural Trade," CESifo Working Paper Series 10151, CESifo.
    5. Mascagni, Giulia & Molla, Kiflu & Mengistu, Andualem, 2021. "Trade Tax Evasion and the Tax Rate: Evidence from Transaction-level Trade Data," Working Papers 16548, Institute of Development Studies, International Centre for Tax and Development.
    6. Andualem T Mengistu & Kiflu G Molla & Giulia Mascagni, 2022. "Trade Tax Evasion and the Tax Rate: Evidence from Transaction-level Trade Data," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 31(1), pages 94-122.
    7. Gor, Seth Omondi, 2012. "An Assessment of the Informal Sector Trade in Kenya," Estey Centre Journal of International Law and Trade Policy, Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, April.
    8. Lin, Chin-Ho, 2018. "Tariff evasion in machinery production networks: Evidence from East Asia," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 115-126.
    9. Kalkuhl, Matthias & Fernandez Milan, Blanca & Schwerhoff, Gregor & Jakob, Michael & Hahnen, Maren & Creutzig, Felix, 2017. "Fiscal Instruments for Sustainable Development: The Case of Land Taxes," MPRA Paper 78652, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Joel CARIOLLE & Cyril CHALENDARD & Anne-Marie GEOURJON & Bertrand LAPORTE, 2016. "Décloisonner l’analyse des données pour appuyer la modernisation des douanes : une illustration à partir du Gabon," Working Papers 201618, CERDI.
    11. Cyril Chalendard, 2015. "Use of internal information, external information acquisition and customs underreporting," CERDI Working papers halshs-01179445, HAL.
    12. Temesgen Worku & Juan P. Mendoza & Jacco L. Wielhouwer, 2016. "Tariff evasion in sub-Saharan Africa: the influence of corruption in importing and exporting countries," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 23(4), pages 741-761, August.
    13. Md. Harun Ur Rashid & Afzal Ahmad & Muhammad Saleh Abdullah & Monir Ahmmed & Serajul Islam, 2022. "Doing Business and Tax Evasion: Evidence from Asian Countries," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(4), pages 21582440221, October.
    14. Fawzi Banao & Bertrand Laporte, 2022. "Terrorism, Customs and fraudulent Gold exports in Africa," CERDI Working papers hal-03889094, HAL.
    15. Antoine Bouët & Devesh Roy, 2012. "Trade protection and tax evasion: Evidence from Kenya, Mauritius, and Nigeria," The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 287-320, April.
    16. Harini Weerasekera, 2018. "Tax Rates and Tax Evasion," South Asia Economic Journal, Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka, vol. 19(2), pages 229-250, September.
    17. Epaphra, Manamba, 2015. "Tax Rates and Tax Evasion: Evidence from Missing Imports in Tanzania," MPRA Paper 62328, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Fawzi Banao & Bertrand Laporte, 2022. "Terrorism, Customs and fraudulent Gold exports in Africa," CERDI Working papers hal-03889094, HAL.
    19. Jon Bakija & Ivan Badinski, 2014. "Evidence on the Responsiveness of Export-Related VAT Evasion to VAT Rates in the EU," Department of Economics Working Papers 2014-06, Department of Economics, Williams College.
    20. Fadi Alasfour, 2019. "Costs of Distrust: The Virtuous Cycle of Tax Compliance in Jordan," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 243-258, March.
    21. Gupta, Pranav Kumar & Roy, Devesh & Ahmad, Kaikaus, 2012. "Close eye or closed eye: The case of export misinvoicing in Bangladesh," IFPRI discussion papers 1157, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Hashimzade, Nigar & Huang, Zhanyi & Myles, Gareth D., 2010. "Tax fraud by firms and optimal auditing," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(1), pages 10-17, March.
    2. Cyril Chalendard, 2015. "Use of internal information, external information acquisition and customs underreporting," Working Papers halshs-01179445, HAL.
    3. Nur-tegin Kanybek D, 2008. "Determinants of Business Tax Compliance," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-28, July.
    4. Lumir Abdixhiku, Geoff Pugh, Iraj Hashi, 2018. "Business Tax Evasion in Transition Economies: A Cross-Country Panel Investigation," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 15(1), pages 11-36, June.
    5. Cyril Chalendard, 2015. "Use of internal information, external information acquisition and customs underreporting," CERDI Working papers halshs-01179445, HAL.
    6. Laszlo Goerke, 2007. "Corporate and personal income tax declarations," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 14(3), pages 281-292, June.
    7. James Alm, 2019. "What Motivates Tax Compliance?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 353-388, April.
    8. Lovemore George Mwanandi, 2020. "Impact of Auditing on VAT Compliance: A case study of small VAT operators in Blantyre City of Malawi," International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), vol. 4(11), pages 326-343, November.
    9. David Joulfaian, 2009. "Bribes and Business Tax Evasion," European Journal of Comparative Economics, Cattaneo University (LIUC), vol. 6(2), pages 227-244, December.
    10. Mirco Tonin, 2014. "Reporting import tariffs (and other taxes)," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(1), pages 153-173, February.
    11. Andualem T Mengistu & Kiflu G Molla & Giulia Mascagni, 2022. "Trade Tax Evasion and the Tax Rate: Evidence from Transaction-level Trade Data," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 31(1), pages 94-122.
    12. Bayer, Ralph & Cowell, Frank, 2009. "Tax compliance and firms' strategic interdependence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(11-12), pages 1131-1143, December.
    13. Lorenzo Rotunno & Pierre-Louis Vézina, 2012. "Chinese Networks and Tariff Evasion," The World Economy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(12), pages 1772-1794, December.
    14. T. C. Michael Wu & C. C. Yang, 2011. "Monopolists' Profit Tax Evasion Revisited," Public Finance Review, , vol. 39(6), pages 831-840, November.
    15. Abdixhiku, Lumir & Krasniqi, Besnik & Pugh, Geoff & Hashi, Iraj, 2017. "Firm-level determinants of tax evasion in transition economies," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 354-366.
    16. Sun, Yukun, 2021. "Corporate tax avoidance and government corruption: Evidence from Chinese firms," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 13-25.
    17. Cowell, Frank, 2003. "Sticks and carrots," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 2046, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    18. Lin, Chin-Ho, 2018. "Tariff evasion in machinery production networks: Evidence from East Asia," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 115-126.
    19. Hanlon, Michelle & Heitzman, Shane, 2010. "A review of tax research," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 127-178, December.
    20. Ms. Prachi Mishra & Mr. Arvind Subramanian & Petia Topalova, 2007. "Policies, Enforcement, and Customs Evasion: Evidence from India," IMF Working Papers 2007/060, International Monetary Fund.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tax evasion; Africa; Trade;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F14 - International Economics - - Trade - - - Empirical Studies of Trade
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecmode:v:39:y:2014:i:c:p:151-162. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/30411 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.