IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecolet/v237y2024ics0165176524001320.html

Administrative procedures as tax enforcement tools

Author

Listed:
  • Cui, Wei
  • Hicks, Jeffrey
  • Wiebe, Michael

Abstract

We study how common administrative procedures affect firm tax evasion. We begin with the counter-intuitive observation that many firms bunch above, rather than below, large notches in China’s corporate income tax. Cross-sectional patterns suggest that administrative procedures in the prepayment and refund system served as de facto enforcement tools that prevented some firms from accessing the reduced tax rates below the notches. Following a regulatory reform that eliminated these procedures, bunching below the notches increased dramatically. The results imply a trade-off between reducing administrative barriers and allowing much taxpayer non-compliance in low-compliance environments.

Suggested Citation

  • Cui, Wei & Hicks, Jeffrey & Wiebe, Michael, 2024. "Administrative procedures as tax enforcement tools," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 237(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolet:v:237:y:2024:i:c:s0165176524001320
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econlet.2024.111649
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0165176524001320
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.econlet.2024.111649?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anne Brockmeyer & Spencer Smith & Marco Hernandez & Stewart Kettle, 2019. "Casting a Wider Tax Net: Experimental Evidence from Costa Rica," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 11(3), pages 55-87, August.
    2. Cui,Wei, 2022. "The Administrative Foundations of the Chinese Fiscal State," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781108491426, Enero-Abr.
    3. Pierre Bachas & Mauricio Soto, 2021. "Corporate Taxation under Weak Enforcement," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 13(4), pages 36-71, November.
    4. Cui, Wei & Hicks, Jeffrey & Xing, Jing, 2022. "Cash on the table? Imperfect take-up of tax incentives and firm investment behavior," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 208(C).
    5. Chen, Shawn Xiaoguang, 2017. "The effect of a fiscal squeeze on tax enforcement: Evidence from a natural experiment in China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 62-76.
    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. Cui, Wei & Wei, Mengying & Xie, Weisi & Xing, Jing, 2025. "Corporate tax cuts for small firms: What do firms do?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).

    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. Wei Cui & Jeffrey Hicks & Max Norton, 2022. "How well-targeted are payroll tax cuts as a response to COVID-19? evidence from China," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 29(5), pages 1321-1347, October.
    2. Tang, Weizheng & Wang, Yanping & Zhang, Lihang, 2025. "The effect of tax revenue targets on firms’ tax burden: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 108(PA).
    3. Zhu, Ling & Liu, Shasha & Kong, Dongmin, 2023. "Governments' fiscal stress and firm decentralization," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    4. Matthias Krapf & David Staubli, 2020. "The Corporate Elasticity of Taxable Income: Event Study Evidence from Switzerland," CESifo Working Paper Series 8715, CESifo.
    5. Wu, Jianjun & Ding, Xiuying & Liu, Xuemei, 2023. "Governmental pressures and firms’ export product quality: Evidence from China," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 55(PA).
    6. Xing, Qiuhang & Li, Mengzhe & Xu, Gaoshuang, 2024. "The impact of tax enforcement on corporate energy efficiency: Evidence from a tax collection reform in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    7. Song, Gaoya & Li, Quan, 2025. "Big data in tax enforcement and trade credit: Evidence from China," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    8. Rongwu Zhang & Wenqiang Fu & Yingxu Kuang, 2022. "Can Digital Economy Promote Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction in Heavily Polluting Enterprises? Empirical Evidence from China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(16), pages 1-21, August.
    9. Ping Lin & Dixin Cai & Qingfeng Geng & Junbing Xu, 2025. "From Green to Gold: the cash management impact of China’s new diversified green finance policy," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 12(1), pages 1-14, December.
    10. Xiong, Jiacai & Huang, Ling & Wang, Xin & Bai, Martin & Qin, Yafeng, 2024. "Local government fiscal stress and regional entrepreneurship: Evidence from a natural experiment in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 177-193.
    11. Yang, Zhijiu & Ding, Hai, 2024. "Turning a blind eye: How local government fiscal distress affects the entry of energy-intensive enterprises," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    12. Qianbin Feng & Lexin Zhao & Mingxue Xu, 2023. "Tax Incentives and Maturity Mismatch between Investment and Financing: Evidence from China," China & World Economy, Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 31(4), pages 1-36, July.
    13. Tao, Yunqing & Yang, Wei & Ye, Yongwei & Kong, Dongmin, 2024. "The Shock of US-China trade war and the job Market: Downstream shrinkage and upstream employment," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 96(C).
    14. Han, Chao & Li, Chongyu & Pei, Jiansuo & Wang, Chunhua, 2024. "Environmental regulation and intermediate imports: Firm-product-level evidence," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    15. Chuanlin Shao & Nan Sun & Xiaofan Li & Weiwei Xiao, 2025. "Tax Enforcement Independence and Corporate Financial Asset Holdings: Quasinatural Experimental Evidence From China," Managerial and Decision Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 46(8), pages 4138-4154, December.
    16. Li, Junhu & Wang, Lin & Dong, Fang & Li, Qinghai, 2025. "The impact of tax reduction and fee cuts policy on corporate new-form productivity: Evidence from Chinese A-share listed companies," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    17. Masanori ORIHARA & Takafumi SUZUKI, 2021. "Windfalls? Costs and Benefits of Investment Tax Incentives due to Financial Constraints," Discussion papers 21087, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    18. Cao, Yuqiang & Lin, Shaoyan & Li, Mangmang & Shan, Yaowen & Wang, Peipei, 2024. "Green taxes: Productivity effects of tax-based environmental regulations on heavily polluting firms," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    19. Ling Zhu & Dongmin Kong, 2023. "Revenue pressure of local governments and firm productivity: Evidence from a natural experiment in China," Economics of Transition and Institutional Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(3), pages 721-748, July.
    20. Kaoru Hosono & Masaki Hotei & Daisuke Miyakawa, 2023. "Causal effects of a tax incentive on SME capital investment," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 61(2), pages 539-557, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • H25 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Business Taxes and Subsidies
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • H32 - Public Economics - - Fiscal Policies and Behavior of Economic Agents - - - Firm

    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:ecolet:v:237:y:2024:i:c:s0165176524001320. 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/ecolet .

    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.