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Voluntary Disclosure of Evaded Taxes - Increasing Revenues, or Increasing Incentives to Evade?

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  • Langenmayr, Dominika

Abstract

Many countries apply lower fines to tax evading individuals when they voluntarily disclose the tax evasion they committed. I model such voluntary disclosure mechanisms theoretically and show that while such mechanisms increase the incentive to evade taxes, they nevertheless increase tax revenues net of administrative costs. I then test the effects of voluntary disclosure in two separate empirical analyses. First, I confirm that voluntary disclosure mechanisms increase tax evasion, using the introduction of the 2009 offshore voluntary disclosure program in the U.S. for identification. Second, I quantify the tax revenues of voluntary disclosures by considering how some state-level governments in Germany bought whistle-blower data from foreign bank employees, thereby increasing the detection probability and the usage of voluntary disclosures.

Suggested Citation

  • Langenmayr, Dominika, 2014. "Voluntary Disclosure of Evaded Taxes - Increasing Revenues, or Increasing Incentives to Evade?," Discussion Papers in Economics 21359, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
  • Handle: RePEc:lmu:muenec:21359
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tax evasion; voluntary disclosure; self-reporting;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • 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
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies

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