IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/pubeco/v221y2023ics0047272723000476.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Escaping the exchange of information: Tax evasion via citizenship-by-investment

Author

Listed:
  • Langenmayr, Dominika
  • Zyska, Lennard

Abstract

With automatic exchange of tax information among countries now common, tax evaders have had to find new ways to hide their offshore holdings. One such way is citizenship-by-investment, which offers foreigners a new passport for a local investment or a fixed fee. We show analytically that high-income individuals acquire a new citizenship to lower the probability that their tax evasion is detected through information exchange. Using data on cross-border bank deposits, we find that deposits in tax havens increase after a country starts offering a citizenship-by-investment program, providing indirect evidence that tax evaders use these programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Langenmayr, Dominika & Zyska, Lennard, 2023. "Escaping the exchange of information: Tax evasion via citizenship-by-investment," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 221(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:pubeco:v:221:y:2023:i:c:s0047272723000476
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2023.104865
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047272723000476
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jpubeco.2023.104865?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. Chinn, Menzie D. & Ito, Hiro, 2006. "What matters for financial development? Capital controls, institutions, and interactions," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(1), pages 163-192, October.
    2. Menkhoff, Lukas & Miethe, Jakob, 2019. "Tax evasion in new disguise? Examining tax havens' international bank deposits," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 53-78.
    3. Alstadsæter, Annette & Johannesen, Niels & Zucman, Gabriel, 2018. "Who owns the wealth in tax havens? Macro evidence and implications for global inequality," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C), pages 89-100.
    4. Leo Ahrens & Fabio Bothner, 2020. "The Big Bang: Tax Evasion After Automatic Exchange of Information Under FATCA and CRS," New Political Economy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(6), pages 849-864, September.
    5. Clément de Chaisemartin & Xavier D'Haultfœuille, 2020. "Two-Way Fixed Effects Estimators with Heterogeneous Treatment Effects," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(9), pages 2964-2996, September.
    6. Katarzyna Bilicka & Clemens Fuest, 2014. "With which countries do tax havens share information?," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 21(2), pages 175-197, April.
    7. Gravelle, Jane G., 2009. "Tax Havens: International Tax Avoidance and Evasion," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 62(4), pages 727-753, December.
    8. Srinivasan, T. N., 1973. "Tax evasion: A model," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 2(4), pages 339-346.
    9. Henrik Jacobsen Kleven & Martin B. Knudsen & Claus Thustrup Kreiner & Søren Pedersen & Emmanuel Saez, 2011. "Unwilling or Unable to Cheat? Evidence From a Tax Audit Experiment in Denmark," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(3), pages 651-692, May.
    10. Michelle Hanlon & Edward L. Maydew & Jacob R. Thornock, 2015. "Taking the Long Way Home: U.S. Tax Evasion and Offshore Investments in U.S. Equity and Debt Markets," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 70(1), pages 257-287, February.
    11. Annette Alstadsæter & Niels Johannesen & Gabriel Zucman, 2019. "Tax Evasion and Inequality," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 109(6), pages 2073-2103, June.
    12. Johannesen, Niels, 2014. "Tax evasion and Swiss bank deposits," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 46-62.
    13. Elsayyad, May & Konrad, Kai A., 2012. "Fighting multiple tax havens," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(2), pages 295-305.
    14. 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.
    15. Casi, Elisa & Spengel, Christoph & Stage, Barbara M.B., 2020. "Cross-border tax evasion after the common reporting standard: Game over?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    16. 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.
    17. Cl'ement de Chaisemartin & Xavier D'Haultfoeuille, 2020. "Difference-in-Differences Estimators of Intertemporal Treatment Effects," Papers 2007.04267, arXiv.org, revised Nov 2023.
    18. Niels Johannesen & Gabriel Zucman, 2014. "The End of Bank Secrecy? An Evaluation of the G20 Tax Haven Crackdown," American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, American Economic Association, vol. 6(1), pages 65-91, February.
    19. Jørgen Juel Andersen & Niels Johannesen & Bob Rijkers, 2022. "Elite Capture of Foreign Aid: Evidence from Offshore Bank Accounts," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 130(2), pages 388-425.
    20. Jost H. Heckemeyer & Aaron K. Hemmerich, 2020. "Information Exchange and Tax Haven Investment in OECD Securities Markets," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 73(2), pages 291-330, June.
    21. Gabriel Zucman, 2013. "The Missing Wealth of Nations: Are Europe and the U.S. net Debtors or net Creditors?," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 128(3), pages 1321-1364.
    22. Jørgen Juel Andersen & Niels Johannesen & David Dreyer Lassen & Elena Paltseva, 2017. "Petro Rents, Political Institutions, and Hidden Wealth: Evidence from Offshore Bank Accounts," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 15(4), pages 818-860.
    23. James Alm, 2012. "Measuring, explaining, and controlling tax evasion: lessons from theory, experiments, and field studies," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 19(1), pages 54-77, February.
    24. Menkhoff, Lukas & Miethe, Jakob, 2019. "Tax evasion in new disguise? Examining tax havens' international bank deposits," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 53-78.
    25. Mr. Luc Laeven & Mr. Fabian Valencia, 2018. "Systemic Banking Crises Revisited," IMF Working Papers 2018/206, International Monetary Fund.
    26. James R. Hines & Eric M. Rice, 1994. "Fiscal Paradise: Foreign Tax Havens and American Business," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 109(1), pages 149-182.
    27. Sun, Liyang & Abraham, Sarah, 2021. "Estimating dynamic treatment effects in event studies with heterogeneous treatment effects," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 175-199.
    28. Konrad, Kai A. & Rees, Ray, 2020. "Passports for sale: The political economy of conflict and cooperation in a meta-club," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    29. Andrew Goodman-Bacon, 2018. "Difference-in-Differences with Variation in Treatment Timing," NBER Working Papers 25018, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    30. Owen Parker, 2017. "Commercializing Citizenship in Crisis EU: The Case of Immigrant Investor Programmes," Journal of Common Market Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(2), pages 332-348, March.
    31. Goodman-Bacon, Andrew, 2021. "Difference-in-differences with variation in treatment timing," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 254-277.
    32. Callaway, Brantly & Sant’Anna, Pedro H.C., 2021. "Difference-in-Differences with multiple time periods," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 225(2), pages 200-230.
    33. Dhammika Dharmapala, 2008. "What problems and opportunities are created by tax havens?," Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Oxford University Press and Oxford Review of Economic Policy Limited, vol. 24(4), pages 661-679, winter.
    34. Sandmo, Agnar, 2005. "The Theory of Tax Evasion: A Retrospective View," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 58(4), pages 643-663, December.
    35. Joel Slemrod, 2007. "Cheating Ourselves: The Economics of Tax Evasion," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(1), pages 25-48, Winter.
    36. Niels Johannesen & Jakob Miethe & Daniel Weishaar, 2022. "Homes Incorporated: Offshore Ownership of Real Estate in the U.K," CESifo Working Paper Series 10159, CESifo.
    37. Lisa De Simone & Rebecca Lester & Kevin Markle, 2020. "Transparency and Tax Evasion: Evidence from the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA)," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 58(1), pages 105-153, March.
    38. Ms. Xin Cindy Xu & Ahmed El-Ashram & Judith Gold, 2015. "Too Much of a Good Thing? Prudent Management of Inflows under Economic Citizenship Programs," IMF Working Papers 2015/093, International Monetary Fund.
    39. Caruana-Galizia, Paul & Caruana-Galizia, Matthew, 2016. "Offshore financial activity and tax policy: evidence from a leaked data set," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 36(3), pages 457-488, September.
    40. repec:hal:pseose:halshs-01053616 is not listed on IDEAS
    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. Jeanne Bomare & Ségal Le Guern Herry, 2022. "Will We Ever Be Able to Track Offshore Wealth? Evidence from the Offshore Real Estate Market in the UK," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03811306, HAL.
    2. Elisa Casi & Mohammed Mardan & Rohit Reddy Muddasani, 2022. "So close and yet so far: the ability of mandatory disclosure rules to crack down on offshore tax evasion," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2022-116, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Ludger Schuknecht & Vincent Siegerink, 2021. "The Political Economy of the International Tax Transparency Agenda in the G20/OECD Context," CESifo Working Paper Series 8813, CESifo.
    4. Pereira dos Santos, João & Strohmaier, Kristina, 2024. "All That Glitters? Golden Visas and Real Estate," IZA Discussion Papers 16857, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    5. Casi, Elisa & Mardan, Mohammed & Stage, Barbara M. B., 2023. "Citizenship/Residence by Investment and Digital Nomad Visas: The Golden Era of Individual Tax Evasion and Avoidance?," Discussion Papers 2023/12, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science.
    6. Ngoc Thang Dang & Stelios Andreadakis & Pamela Nika & Monomita Nandy, 2024. "Breaking the Boundaries in the Digital Age: Open Banking and Tax Evasion," IJFS, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-27, August.
    7. Alstadsæter, Annette & Casi, Elisa & Miethe, Jakob & Stage, Barbara M. B., 2023. "Lost in Information: National Implementation of Global Tax Agreements," Discussion Papers 2023/22, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science, revised 27 Sep 2024.
    8. Jeanne Bomare & Ségal Le Guern Herry, 2022. "Will We Ever Be Able to Track Offshore Wealth? Evidence from the Offshore Real Estate Market in the UK," Working Papers hal-03811306, HAL.
    9. Jeanne Bomare & Ségal Le Guern Herry, 2022. "Will We Ever Be Able to Track Offshore Wealth? Evidence from the Offshore Real Estate Market in the UK," SciencePo Working papers hal-03811306, HAL.

    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. Dominika Langenmayr & Lennard Zyska, 2021. "Avoiding Taxes: Escaping the Exchange of Information: Tax Evasion via Citizenship-by-Investment," Working Papers 204, Bavarian Graduate Program in Economics (BGPE).
    2. Menkhoff, Lukas & Miethe, Jakob, 2019. "Tax evasion in new disguise? Examining tax havens' international bank deposits," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 176, pages 53-78.
    3. Casi, Elisa & Spengel, Christoph & Stage, Barbara M.B., 2020. "Cross-border tax evasion after the common reporting standard: Game over?," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    4. D’Avino, Carmela, 2023. "Counteracting offshore tax evasion: Evidence from the foreign account tax compliance act," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    5. Jeanne Bomare & Ségal Le Guern Herry, 2022. "Will We Ever Be Able to Track Offshore Wealth? Evidence from the Offshore Real Estate Market in the UK," Working Papers hal-03811306, HAL.
    6. Jeanne Bomare & Ségal Le Guern Herry, 2022. "Will We Ever Be Able to Track Offshore Wealth? Evidence from the Offshore Real Estate Market in the UK," SciencePo Working papers hal-03811306, HAL.
    7. Jeanne Bomare & Ségal Le Guern Herry, 2022. "Will We Ever Be Able to Track Offshore Wealth? Evidence from the Offshore Real Estate Market in the UK," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03811306, HAL.
    8. Bayer, Ralph-C. & Hodler, Roland & Raschky, Paul A. & Strittmatter, Anthony, 2020. "Expropriations, property confiscations and new offshore entities: Evidence from the Panama Papers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 171(C), pages 132-152.
    9. Hoang Ha Nguyen Thi & Alfons Weichenrieder, 2023. "Tax Haven Welfare and the Crackdown on Secrecy: Evidence from Night Light Emissions," CESifo Working Paper Series 10721, CESifo.
    10. Pierce O’Reilly & Kevin Parra Ramírez & Michael A. Stemmer, 2021. "Exchange of Information and Bank Deposits in International Financial Centres," Hacienda Pública Española / Review of Public Economics, IEF, vol. 239(4), pages 27-69, November.
    11. Kemme, David M. & Parikh, Bhavik & Steigner, Tanja, 2020. "Tax Morale and International Tax Evasion," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 55(3).
    12. Agustín Bénétrix & Lorenz Emter & Martin Schmitz, 2024. "Automatic for the (tax) people: information sharing and cross-border investment in tax havens," Economic Policy, CEPR, CESifo, Sciences Po;CES;MSH, vol. 39(120), pages 853-895.
    13. Leo Ahrens & Lukas Hakelberg & Thomas Rixen, 2022. "A victim of regulatory arbitrage? Automatic exchange of information and the use of golden visas and corporate shells," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(3), pages 653-672, July.
    14. Jakob Miethe, 2020. "The Elusive Banker: Using Hurricanes to Uncover (Non-)Activity in Offshore Financial Centers," CESifo Working Paper Series 8625, CESifo.
    15. 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.
    16. Leenders, Wouter & Lejour, Arjan & Rabaté, Simon & van ’t Riet, Maarten, 2023. "Offshore tax evasion and wealth inequality: Evidence from a tax amnesty in the Netherlands," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    17. Alstadsæter, Annette & Casi, Elisa & Miethe, Jakob & Stage, Barbara M. B., 2023. "Lost in Information: National Implementation of Global Tax Agreements," Discussion Papers 2023/22, Norwegian School of Economics, Department of Business and Management Science, revised 27 Sep 2024.
    18. Silvia Marchesi & Giovanna Marcolongo, 2023. "Knockin' on H(e)aven's door. Financial crises and hidden wealth," Working Papers 518, University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics.
    19. Fernando, Garcia Alvarado & Antoine, Mandel, 2022. "The network structure of global tax evasion evidence from the Panama papers," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 660-684.
    20. Niels Johannesen & Daniel Reck & Max Risch & Joel Slemrod & John Guyton & Patrick Langetieg, 2024. "The Offshore World According to FATCA: New Evidence on the Foreign Wealth of US Households," Tax Policy and the Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 38(1), pages 61-99.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Citizenship-by-investment programs; Tax havens; Tax evasion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • F53 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - International Agreements and Observance; International Organizations
    • K37 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Immigration Law

    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:pubeco:v:221:y:2023:i:c:s0047272723000476. 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/505578 .

    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.