Tax Compliance

Last registered on October 20, 2020
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Tax Compliance
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0006612
Initial registration date
October 20, 2020

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
October 20, 2020, 7:35 AM EDT

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

Locations

Country
United States of America
Region
TX

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
UT Dallas
Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status
On going
Start date
2020-10-15
End date
2022-01-01
Keywords
Governance
Additional Keywords
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Abstract
This experiment explores the effect of tax morale messages on the behavior of taxpayers.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Holz, Justin, John List and Alejandro Zentner. 2020. "Tax Compliance." AEA RCT Registry. October 20. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.6612-1.0
Sponsors & Partners

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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
We send messages to taxpayers
Intervention Start Date
2020-10-15
Intervention End Date
2021-01-01

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Tax payments and other measures of tax compliance.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
See experimental design
Experimental Design Details
We implement five treatments where we vary the presence of and language used in the tax reminder message. Some subjects will not receive any message informing them about a tax amnesty. A second group will get a notification message. The third group will receive a tax morale message that highlights the country's need for revenue in the context of the Covid-19 crisis. A fourth group will receive a deterrence message that mentions that not paying tax debt can be punished with a prison sentence. Finally, another group will receive a message that attempts to change their expectations about a future tax amnesty.

103,576 taxpayers receive a message in the online portal they use to file their taxes. 21,876 taxpayers don't have access to the online portal and receive physical letters. 25,071 receive no message 25,489 in the notification treatment 24,872 in the appeal for revenue treatment 24,847 in the deterrence message treatment 25,173 in the expectations treatment.

Some taxpayers have representatives who receive the notifications from the IRS. Because multiple taxpayers can be represented by the same representative, the randomization was done at the level of the representative.

Primary Outcomes (End Points): Tax payments and other measures of tax compliance as used by the Direccion de Impuestos Internos.

Randomization Unit: The randomization unit is the tax representative.

Planned number of clusters: There are 110,581 total clusters in the sample.
Randomization Method
Randomization was done using STATA
Randomization Unit
See experimental design
Was the treatment clustered?
Yes

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
See experimental design
Sample size: planned number of observations
See experimental design
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
See experimental design
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials

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IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Social and Behavioral Sciences Institutional Review Board at the University of Chicago
IRB Approval Date
2019-03-27
IRB Approval Number
IRB19-0510
IRB Name
Office of Research Integrity and Outreach
IRB Approval Date
2019-05-30
IRB Approval Number
19MR0144
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

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Intervention

Is the intervention completed?
No
Data Collection Complete
Data Publication

Data Publication

Is public data available?
No

Program Files

Program Files
Reports, Papers & Other Materials

Relevant Paper(s)

Reports & Other Materials