This paper analyzes the sources of heterogeneity in legal tax avoidance strategies across individuals. Three conditions are required for a taxpayer to participate in tax avoidance: incentive, access, and awareness. Using rich Swedish administrative panel data with a unique link between corporate and individual tax returns, we analyze individual participation in legal tax planning around the 200...

Since Feldstein (1999), the most widely used method of calculating the excess burden of income taxation is to estimate the e¤ect of tax rates on reported taxable income. Feldstein’s taxable income formula for deadweight loss implicitly assumes that the marginal social cost of evasion and avoidance equals the tax rate. This paper argues that this condition is likely to be violated in practice fo...

This paper analyzes the behavior of the tax revenue to output ratio over the business cycle. In order to replicate the empirical evidence, we develop a simple model combining the standard Ak growth model with the tax evasion phenomenon. When individuals conceal part of their true income from the tax authority, they face the risk of being audited and hence of paying the corresponding …ne. Under ...

This paper explores the tax evasion attitudes of taxpayers in Lebanon, a multi-religious country suffering from prevalent evasion. The study surveys 359 Lebanese to determine demographic factors influencing their perception toward

Reducing tax evasion is a priority for many governments. A growing literature argues that verifying taxpayer reports against third-party information is critical for tax collection. However, effectiveness can be limited when tax authorities face constraints to credible enforcement and taxpayers make offsetting adjustments on other margins. We exploit a policy intervention in which Ecuadorian fir...