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The Tax Reform Act of 1986: An Assessment in Terms of Tax Compliance Behavior

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The Tax Reform Act of 1986 (TRA) has sometimes been portrayed as a genuine effort to introduce fairness, simplicity, and economic growth considerations into the Internal Revenue Code of the U.S. Although regarding the TRA as far from adequate, the late Richard Musgrave did in fact regard this statute as yielding many significant changes that improved the equity and efficiency of the process of federal income taxation. The present study investigates empirically whether the TRA was so well received by taxpayers as to increase (at least in theory) the degree of federal personal income tax compliance. Although the estimates imply that this may have initially been the case, a more in-depth analysis reveals that the TRA actually exercised a statistically zero net impact on the aggregate degree of personal income tax compliance over the longer run, implying that the TRA merely required a sufficient amount of time for tax evaders to learn the new law so that they could ultimately resume their tax-evasion ways.

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  • Cebula, Richard J. & Coombs, Christopher & Yang, Bill Z., 2009. "The Tax Reform Act of 1986: An Assessment in Terms of Tax Compliance Behavior," Economia Internazionale / International Economics, Camera di Commercio Industria Artigianato Agricoltura di Genova, vol. 62(2), pages 145-162.
    • Handle: RePEc:ris:ecoint:0007
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    Cited by:

    1. Cebula, Richard, 2010. "An Empirical Analysis of Determinants of Recent Federal Personal Income Tax Evasion in the U.S," MPRA Paper 53205, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Richard J. Cebula, 2014. "The underground economy in the U.S.A.: preliminary new evidence on the impact of income tax rates (and other factors) on aggregate tax evasion 1975-2008," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 67(271), pages 451-481.
    3. Richard J. Cebula, 2013. "Budget Deficits, Economic Freedom, and Economic Growth in OECD Nations: P2SLS Fixed-Effects Estimates, 2003–2008," Journal of Private Enterprise, The Association of Private Enterprise Education, vol. 28(Spring 20), pages 75-96.
    4. Cebula, Richard & Boylan, Robert & Foley, Maggie & Isard, Douglass, 2014. "Implications of Recent Federal Personal Income Tax Increases for Income Tax Evasion, Tax Revenues, and Budget Deficits," MPRA Paper 55308, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Richard J. Cebula, 2014. "Where Has The Currency Gone? And Why? The Underground Economy And Personal Income Tax Evasion In The U.S., 1970-2008," Review of Economic Analysis, Digital Initiatives at the University of Waterloo Library, vol. 6(1), pages 36-52, June.
    6. Feige, Edgar L. & Cebula, Richard, 2011. "America’s unreported economy: measuring the size, growth and determinants of income tax evasion in the U.S," MPRA Paper 34781, University Library of Munich, Germany.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tax Reform; Tax Reform Act; Income Tax Evasion;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

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