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Field
Abstract
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Before
Can strategic communication significantly enhance the image of the tax authority and boost tax morale among taxpayers? This extensive online survey experiment, conducted following a significant institutional overhaul of the Honduran tax authority, involving a substantial personnel renewal, seeks to provide empirical insights into the most effective methods for communicating institutional changes. Our research aims to evaluate the efficacy of three distinct messaging interventions on perceptions of the tax authority and on indicators of taxpayers' willingness to comply with tax obligations. The informational treatments encompass firstly, a message highlighting the low perception of corruption within the Honduran Revenue Administration Service (SAR, as per its Spanish acronym) based on factual data – the "perception" treatment; secondly, a communication emphasizing the extensive staff renewal within SAR as a measure to combat corruption – the "purge" treatment; and lastly, a combined approach that integrates the "perception" treatment followed by the "purge" treatment – the "combined" treatment. A control group received a placebo message, providing neutral information about the tax authority. We investigate the divergent impacts of these treatments on two distinct sets of outcomes: firstly, on perceptions of the tax authority, and secondly, on tax morale and indicators of willingness to comply with or evade tax obligations.
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After
Can strategic communication significantly enhance the image of the tax authority and boost tax morale among taxpayers? We conduct an extensive online survey experiment following a significant institutional overhaul of the Honduran tax authority, which involved a substantial personnel renewal. The project seeks to provide empirical insights to determine which are the most effective methods for communicating and reap out the benefits of institutional changes. Our research aims to evaluate the efficacy of three distinct messaging interventions on perceptions of the tax authority and on indicators of taxpayers' willingness to comply with tax obligations. The informational treatments encompass a message highlighting Honduran citizen’s perception of their tax authority as relatively honest in a regional comparison– the "perception" treatment. The message in a second treatment arm emphasizes the extensive staff renewal within the Honduran Revenue Administration Service (SAR, as per its Spanish acronym) as a measure to combat corruption – the "purge" treatment. Finally, a third treatment arm integrates the "perception" treatment followed by the "purge" message – the "combined" treatment. A control group received a placebo message, providing neutral information about the tax authority. We investigate the divergent impacts of these treatments on two distinct sets of outcomes: firstly, on perceptions of the tax authority, and secondly, on tax morale and indicators of willingness to comply with or evade tax obligations.
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