IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/pubfin/v33y2005i4p466-487.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Tax Evasion on Gratuities

Author

Listed:
  • John E. Anderson

    (University of Nebraska-Lincoln)

  • Örn B. Bodvarsson

    (University of Nebraska-Lincoln and St. Cloud State University)

Abstract

Tax evasion on tips earned by servers is a pervasive problem, one that has received almost no attention in the tax evasion literature. The authors develop a model of joint server and employer tax compliance to derive predictions for how the customer tipping rate, the server’s sales and tax rate, and the expected IRS penalty on employers influence compliance by both parties. They test the model by examining interstate differences in reported hourly pay (wages plus reported tips) during 2001. They use the Occupational Employment Statistics surveys, data on IRS regional audit rates, data from each state’s food and beverage service industry, and information on each state’s minimum wage and tax laws to perform ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares estimation. Empirical results generally provide strong support for a number of the theory’s predictions.

Suggested Citation

  • John E. Anderson & Örn B. Bodvarsson, 2005. "Tax Evasion on Gratuities," Public Finance Review, , vol. 33(4), pages 466-487, July.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:pubfin:v:33:y:2005:i:4:p:466-487
    DOI: 10.1177/1091142105277408
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1091142105277408
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1091142105277408?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alan Macnaughton & Michael R. Veall, 2001. "Tipping and the Mcquatters Formula," Public Finance Review, , vol. 29(2), pages 99-107, March.
    2. Srinivasan, T. N., 1973. "Tax evasion: A model," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 339-346.
    3. 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.
    4. James Andreoni & Brian Erard & Jonathan Feinstein, 1998. "Tax Compliance," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 36(2), pages 818-860, June.
    5. Alm, James, 1988. "Uncertain Tax Policies, Individual Behavior, and Welfare," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 78(1), pages 237-245, March.
    6. Yitzhaki, Shlomo, 1974. "Income tax evasion: A theoretical analysis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(2), pages 201-202, May.
    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. Stefan Gössling & Sébastien Fernandez & Carlos Martin-Rios & Susana Pasamar Reyes & Valérie Fointiat & Rami K Isaac & Merete Lunde, 2020. "Current Issues in Tourism Restaurant tipping in Europe: a comparative assessment," Post-Print hal-02546589, HAL.
    2. Ge, Qi, 2018. "Sports sentiment and tipping behavior," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 95-113.
    3. Siglé, Maarten & Goslinga, Sjoerd & Speklé, Roland & van der Hel, Lisette & Veldhuizen, Robbert, 2018. "Corporate tax compliance: Is a change towards trust-based tax strategies justified?," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 3-16.
    4. John E. Anderson, 2005. "Fiscal Reform and its Firm-Level Effects in Eastern Europe and Central Asia," William Davidson Institute Working Papers Series wp800, William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan.
    5. Lynn, Michael, 2016. "Why are we more likely to tip some service occupations than others? Theory, evidence, and implications," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 134-150.

    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. James Alm & Antoine Malézieux, 2021. "40 years of tax evasion games: a meta-analysis," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 24(3), pages 699-750, September.
    2. Alex Reuben Kira, 2017. "An Evaluation of Governments’ Initiatives in Enhancing Small Taxpayers’ Voluntary Tax Compliance in Developing Countries," International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Accounting, Finance and Management Sciences, vol. 7(1), pages 253-267, January.
    3. Cummings, Ronald G. & Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge & McKee, Michael & Torgler, Benno, 2009. "Tax morale affects tax compliance: Evidence from surveys and an artefactual field experiment," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 70(3), pages 447-457, June.
    4. Pickhardt, Michael & Seibold, Goetz, 2014. "Income tax evasion dynamics: Evidence from an agent-based econophysics model," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 147-160.
    5. Pickhardt, Michael & Prinz, Aloys, 2014. "Behavioral dynamics of tax evasion – A survey," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1-19.
    6. Klarita Gërxhani, 2004. "The Informal Sector in Developed and Less Developed Countries: A Literature Survey," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 120(3_4), pages 267-300, September.
    7. Alm, James & Cherry, Todd & Jones, Michael & McKee, Michael, 2010. "Taxpayer information assistance services and tax compliance behavior," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 577-586, August.
    8. Matthew D. Rablen, 2014. "Audit Probability versus Effectiveness: The Beckerian Approach Revisited," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 16(2), pages 322-342, April.
    9. Lars P. Feld & Bruno S. Frey, 2002. "Trust breeds trust: How taxpayers are treated," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 87-99, July.
    10. Eric Floyd & Michael Hallsworth & John List & Robert Metcalfe & Kristian Rotaru & Ivo Vlaev, 2022. "What motivates people to pay their taxes? Evidence from four experiments on tax compliance," Natural Field Experiments 00750, The Field Experiments Website.
    11. Marjit, Sugata & Biswas, Amit K. & Beladi, Hamid, 2008. "Minimize regulations to regulate -- Extending the Lucas Critique," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 623-627, July.
    12. Christian A. Vossler & Michael McKee, 2017. "Efficient Tax Reporting: The Effects Of Taxpayer Liability Information Services," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 55(2), pages 920-940, April.
    13. Forest, Adam & Kirchler, Erich, 2010. "Targeting occupations with varying reputations to increase tax revenue," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 39(3), pages 400-406, June.
    14. Samreen Malik & Benedikt Mihm & Florian Timme, 2018. "An experimental analysis of tax avoidance policies," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 25(1), pages 200-239, February.
    15. Juan Molero & Francesc Pujol, 2012. "Walking Inside the Potential Tax Evader’s Mind: Tax Morale Does Matter," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 105(2), pages 151-162, January.
    16. Yoshio Kamijo & Takehito Masuda & Hiroshi Uemura, 2015. "Who is audited? Experimental study on rule-based and human tax auditing schemes," Working Papers SDES-2015-9, Kochi University of Technology, School of Economics and Management, revised Jan 2015.
    17. Eisenhauer, Joseph G., 2008. "Ethical preferences, risk aversion, and taxpayer behavior," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 45-63, February.
    18. Prinz, Aloys & Muehlbacher, Stephan & Kirchler, Erich, 2014. "The slippery slope framework on tax compliance: An attempt to formalization," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 20-34.
    19. Juan Prieto-Rodriguez & Maria Jose Sanzo-Perez & Javier Suarez-Pandiello, 2005. "Análisis económico de la actitud hacia el fraude fiscal en España," Public Economics 0502005, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    20. Kasper, Matthias & Alm, James, 2022. "Audits, audit effectiveness, and post-audit tax compliance," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 87-102.

    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:sae:pubfin:v:33:y:2005:i:4:p:466-487. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.