IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/uca/ucaiel/17.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Tax Amnesties

Author

Listed:
  • Marchese, Carla

Abstract

A tax amnesty can be a useful tax policy tool when exploited in exceptional circumstances. Amnesties can also be used systematically as a discriminatory mechanism to improve the efficiency or even the equity of the tax system, but only if government commitment to enforcing tax law is credible. If such credibility is lacking, amnesties may actually undermine future tax revenue by breaching the implicit, psychological contract between taxpayers and the state, thus reducing taxpayers’ internal motivation for compliance. Amnesties also have important political implications, because they can signal intertemporal inconsistency in government decision-making and may be linked to the political business cycle. Amnesties respond to externalities among states or layers of government deriving from tax and enforcement policies, and network effects in these fields can trigger waves of amnesties.

Suggested Citation

  • Marchese, Carla, 2014. "Tax Amnesties," IEL Working Papers 17, Institute of Public Policy and Public Choice - POLIS.
  • Handle: RePEc:uca:ucaiel:17
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cLRHFAL8s43crgQ5h42uBojsAQxg4bAx/view?usp=sharing
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alm, James & Beck, William, 1993. "Tax Amnesties and Compliance in the Long Run: A Time Series Analysis," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 46(1), pages 53-60, March.
    2. Pommerehne, Werner W & Zweifel, Peter, 1991. "Success of a Tax Amnesty: At the Polls, for the FISC?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 72(2-3), pages 131-165, December.
    3. Benno Torgler & Christoph A. Schaltegger, 2005. "Tax Amnesties and Political Participation," Public Finance Review, , vol. 33(3), pages 403-431, May.
    4. Mikesell, John L. & Ross, Justin M., 2012. "Fast Money? The Contribution of State Tax Amnesties to Public Revenue Systems," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 65(3), pages 529-562, September.
    5. Stella, Peter, 1991. "An economic analysis of tax amnesties," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(3), pages 383-400, December.
    6. Carla Marchese & Alberto Cassone, 2000. "Tax Amnesty as Price-Discriminating Behavior by a Monopolistic Government," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 21-32, January.
    7. Alm, James & Beck, William, 1993. "Tax Amnesties and Compliance in the Long Run: A Time Series Analysis," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association, vol. 46(1), pages 53-60, March.
    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. Miguel A. SANCHEZ VILLALBA, 2017. "On the effects of repeated tax amnesties," Journal of Economics and Political Economy, KSP Journals, vol. 4(3), pages 285-301, September.
    2. Bayer, Ralph-C. & Oberhofer, Harald & Winner, Hannes, 2015. "The occurrence of tax amnesties: Theory and evidence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 70-82.
    3. Gauthier, Stéphane & Laroque, Guy, 2014. "On the value of randomization," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 493-507.
    4. Jonathan Lewallen & Sean M. Theriault & Bryan D. Jones, 2016. "Congressional dysfunction: An information processing perspective," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 10(2), pages 179-190, June.
    5. Javier Moreno & Jaime H. Beltrán & Leovardo Mata, 2019. "Efectos de corto y largo plazo de los programas de condonación de créditos fiscales en la recaudación del Impuesto al Valor Agregado," Remef - Revista Mexicana de Economía y Finanzas Nueva Época REMEF (The Mexican Journal of Economics and Finance), Instituto Mexicano de Ejecutivos de Finanzas, IMEF, vol. 14(1), pages 113-128, Enero-Mar.

    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. Patricia Gil & Justin E. Holz & John A. List & Andrew Simon & Alejandro Zentner, 2023. "Toward an Understanding of Tax Amnesties: Theory and Evidence from a Natural Field Experiment," NBER Working Papers 31210, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Koch, Christian & Müller, Cornelius, 2022. "Tax Amnesties and the Insurance Effect: An Experimental Study," VfS Annual Conference 2015 (Muenster): Economic Development - Theory and Policy 112991, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association, revised 2022.
    3. Miguel A. SANCHEZ VILLALBA, 2017. "On the effects of repeated tax amnesties," Journal of Economics and Political Economy, KSP Journals, vol. 4(3), pages 285-301, September.
    4. Lars Gläser & Martin Halla, 2008. "Die EU‐Zinsenrichtlinie: Ein Schuss in den Ofen?," Perspektiven der Wirtschaftspolitik, Verein für Socialpolitik, vol. 9(1), pages 83-101, February.
    5. Al-Karablieh, Yazan & Koumanakos, Evangelos & Stantcheva, Stefanie, 2021. "Clearing the bar: Improving tax compliance for small firms through target setting," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    6. Justin M. Ross & Neal D. Buckwalter, 2013. "Strategic Tax Planning for State Tax Amnesties," Public Finance Review, , vol. 41(3), pages 275-301, May.
    7. Hari Luitel & Mehmet Tosun, 2014. "A reexamination of state fiscal health and amnesty enactment," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(5), pages 874-893, October.
    8. Langenmayr, Dominika, 2017. "Voluntary disclosure of evaded taxes — Increasing revenue, or increasing incentives to evade?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C), pages 110-125.
    9. Norman Gemmell & Marisa Ratto, 2018. "The Effects of Penalty Information on Tax Compliance: Evidence from a New Zealand Field Experiment," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 71(3), pages 547-588, September.
    10. Bayer, Ralph-C. & Oberhofer, Harald & Winner, Hannes, 2015. "The occurrence of tax amnesties: Theory and evidence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 70-82.
    11. Mr. Eric Le Borgne, 2006. "Economic and Political Determinants of Tax Amnesties in the U.S. States," IMF Working Papers 2006/222, International Monetary Fund.
    12. Javier Moreno & Jaime H. Beltrán & Leovardo Mata, 2019. "Efectos de corto y largo plazo de los programas de condonación de créditos fiscales en la recaudación del Impuesto al Valor Agregado," Remef - Revista Mexicana de Economía y Finanzas Nueva Época REMEF (The Mexican Journal of Economics and Finance), Instituto Mexicano de Ejecutivos de Finanzas, IMEF, vol. 14(1), pages 113-128, Enero-Mar.
    13. Matthew Gould & Matthew D. Rablen, 2020. "Voluntary disclosure schemes for offshore tax evasion," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 27(4), pages 805-831, August.
    14. Bayer, Ralph-C. & Oberhofer, Harald & Winner, Hannes, 2015. "The occurrence of tax amnesties: Theory and evidence," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 70-82.
    15. Terry Shevlin & Jacob Thornock & Braden Williams, 2017. "An examination of firms’ responses to tax forgiveness," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 22(2), pages 577-607, June.
    16. Julio López Laborda & Fernando Rodrigo Sauco, "undated". "Incidencia de la amnistía fiscal de 1991 en el cumplimiento a largo plazo en el IRPF," Studies on the Spanish Economy 106, FEDEA.
    17. Paul Dunn & Jonathan Farrar & Cass Hausserman, 2018. "The Influence of Guilt Cognitions on Taxpayers’ Voluntary Disclosures," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(3), pages 689-701, March.
    18. James Alm & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez & Sally Wallace, 2009. "Do Tax Amnesties Work? The Revenue Effects Of Tax Amnesties During The Transition In The Russian Federation," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(2), pages 235-253, September.
    19. Norman Gemmell & Marisa Ratto, 2018. "The Effects of Penalty Information on Tax Compliance: Evidence from a New Zealand Field Experiment," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 71(3), pages 547-588, September.
    20. Benno Torgler & Christoph A. Schaltegger & Markus Schaffner, 2003. "Is Forgiveness Divine? A Cross-Culture Comparison of Tax Amnesties," Swiss Journal of Economics and Statistics (SJES), Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics (SSES), vol. 139(III), pages 375-396, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    tax amnesty; tax evasion; tax policy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H20 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - General
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • K34 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Tax Law

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:uca:ucaiel:17. 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: Lucia Padovani (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.digspes.uniupo.it .

    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.