Tax Compliance in the Dominican Republic

Last registered on March 31, 2019

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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Tax Compliance in the Dominican Republic

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0004064

Initial registration date

March 28, 2019

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

March 31, 2019, 11:20 PM EDT

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

Locations

Country

Dominican Republic

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Justin Holz

Affiliation

University of Chicago

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

John List

PI Affiliation

University of Chicago

Contact Investigator

PI Name

Alejandro Zentner

PI Affiliation

University of Texas at Dallas

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2019-03-27

End date

2020-04-30

Keywords

Governance

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Abstract

This experiment explores the effect of tax morale messages on tax compliance in the Dominican Republic. The letters are sent to self-employed individuals in the Dominican Republic before they are supposed to declare their taxable income. The goal of the experiment is to increase tax compliance. In the experiment, there are 43,973 individuals who receive one of six messages ahead of the tax deadline.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Holz, Justin, John List and Alejandro Zentner. 2019. "Tax Compliance in the Dominican Republic." AEA RCT Registry. March 31. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.4064-1.0

Former Citation

Holz, Justin, John List and Alejandro Zentner. 2019. "Tax Compliance in the Dominican Republic." AEA RCT Registry. March 31. https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/4064/history/44429

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Intervention Start Date

2019-03-27

Intervention End Date

2019-03-28

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Income tax declaration and other measures of tax compliance used by Dirección General de Impuestos Internos.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

We send randomized tax messages to self-employed individuals in the Dominican Republic to look at the effect on tax compliance.

Experimental Design Details

We implement six treatments where we vary the language used in the tax reminder message. These messages either frame tax evasion as an act of commission, mention a recent law that introduces jail time for tax evasion, or mention that going to trial for tax evasion will make their identity public. We also include messages with both commission framing and either jail time or public disclosure to look at the interaction.

Randomization Method

Randomization was done using STATA

Randomization Unit

Randomization was done on the individual level.

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

43973 self-employed taxpayers

Sample size: planned number of observations

43973 self-employed taxpayers

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Control = 7328
Omission to Commission = 7329
Jail Time = 7329
Public Disclosure = 7329
Omission to Commission with Jail Time = 7329
Omission to Commission with Public Disclosure = 7329

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

Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB