Behavioural Responses to Tax administration changes

Last registered on October 17, 2023

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Behavioural Responses to Tax administration changes

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0011983

Initial registration date

September 01, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

September 04, 2023, 6:55 AM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated

October 17, 2023, 9:00 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

Colombia

Region

Bogotá

Primary Investigator

Name

Luis Fernando Gamboa

Affiliation

DIAN

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Luis Carlos Reyes

PI Affiliation

Dian

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2023-09-05

End date

2023-11-30

Keywords

Other

Additional Keywords

behaviour, tax, public economics

JEL code(s)

h24, c93

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

Tax administrations face continuos challenges to increase the efficiency of their daily activities. The existence of pre-populated forms allows the taxpayers carried out their tax duties since the direct costs of income tax compliance are non negligible for most of them.
However, this process requires some level of digital literacy that is not common in latin american countries. In this case, we are interested in assessing how behave the taxpayers under some different messages designed to encourage the use of a new personal income tax application. The setting includes two treatment groups based on the information provide to them.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Gamboa, Luis Fernando and Luis Carlos Reyes. 2023. "Behavioural Responses to Tax administration changes." AEA RCT Registry. October 17. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11983-1.1

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

The intervention consists of using the change in the accompanying mechanisms that taxpayers have to comply with their obligations. Consequently, three types of communications will be sent to three randomly selected groups. Each communication has a different level of information. The first one only reminds the date of compliance with income tax obligations. The second one also includes additional content on the implementation of a new accompanying interface and the specific date. The third letter includes, in addition to the content of the second letter, a set of images related to the new platform.
These letters will be sent before the due date of the tax liability and the implementation of the new accompanying technology.

Intervention Start Date

2023-09-07

Intervention End Date

2023-10-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Usage rate of the new interface, Average number of days prior to tax due date, average compliance, average difference in reported taxable income, average differences in tax payments

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

The experiment consists of dividing the income tax payer population into 4 groups. In three of them, a communication related to the date of fulfillment of obligations is sent with different levels of content.
In these letters, information is provided on the availability of a new support platform for compliance with the forms. The purpose of this intervention is to detect the usage rate of the new interface, the average number of days prior to tax due date and the average compliance under each scenario.

Experimental Design Details

The experiment includes 4 comparison groups of 32,939 tax payers:
Those who do NOT receive any communication (8,234)
Those who receive a basic reminder of the expiration date (8,228)
Those who receive a reminder of the due date + information on the implementation of the new support tool (8,280)
Those who receive a reminder of the due date + information on the implementation of the new image-based support tool (8,197)

The institution sends the letter to each taxpayer 3 weeks before the due date. At the end of the tax schedule, we will use the administrative registries from the use of the interfase and the amount of money reported (income and taxes) to disentangle the differences among each others.

Randomization Method

Randomization done by computer using the taxpayer database.

Randomization Unit

individuals

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

About 33,000 individuals

Sample size: planned number of observations

33000 individuals

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

8,228 tax payers belong to the control group, Treatment 1 includes 8,228 tax payers), treatment 2 (Those who receive a reminder of the due date + information on the implementation of the new support tool, 8,280 taxpayers), Tretment 3 (Those who receive a reminder of the due date + information on the implementation of the new image-based support tool, 8,197 taxpayers)

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB