Nudging for Prompt Tax Penalty Payment: A Field Experiment on Tax Penalty Collection in Indonesia

Last registered on November 10, 2022
View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Nudging for Prompt Tax Penalty Payment: A Field Experiment on Tax Penalty Collection in Indonesia
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0008277
Initial registration date
September 22, 2021

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 28, 2021, 2:14 PM EDT

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

Last updated
November 10, 2022, 4:07 AM EST

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

Locations

Country
Indonesia
Region

Primary Investigator

Name
Eko Arief Yogama
Affiliation
The University of Sheffield
Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Matthew D. Rablen
PI Affiliation
The University of Sheffield
PI Name
Daniel J. Gray
PI Affiliation
The University of Sheffield

Additional Trial Information

Status
Completed
Start date
2021-09-01
End date
2022-05-31
Keywords
Behavior
Additional Keywords
Tax penalty, payment
JEL code(s)
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
Tax penalty collection remains a significant problem that tax authorities must mitigate around the globe. Failure to identify and mitigate the tax penalty collection problem would result in revenue losses, higher operational costs due to additional steps that must be performed, and higher safety risks because of the escalation of the collection process. Significant strands of behavioural economics exploring tax compliance behaviour generally focus on regular payment and reporting accuracy and timeliness. However, delinquent taxes and penalty repayment and collection have been understudied. This research aims to fill the gap by conducting a field experiment using various behavioural messages to motivate taxpayers that have been issued tax penalties to pay their tax penalties promptly, especially in Indonesia as a developing country. A randomised controlled trial with three treatment arms consists of deterrence, information, and simplification messages will be performed in cooperation with the Indonesian tax authority, the Directorate General of Taxes of the Republic of Indonesia. This research will involve taxpayers registered at the district tax offices within four regional tax offices as possible. The research results are expected to provide meaningful insight for the tax authority in formulating their tax collection policy.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Yogama, Eko Arief, Daniel J. Gray and Matthew D. Rablen. 2022. "Nudging for Prompt Tax Penalty Payment: A Field Experiment on Tax Penalty Collection in Indonesia." AEA RCT Registry. November 10. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8277-1.2000000000000003
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
A physical letter will be attached to the standard notice of tax penalties sent to taxpayer. There will be three treatment groups receiving three different types of intervention letter.
1. Deterrence letter: highlighting the legal and financial consequences of not paying the penalty promptly.
2. Simplification letter: providing biller code to pay the penalty.
3. Information: emphasising on what the taxpayer could do in case the taxpayer has financial difficulties.
Intervention Start Date
2021-11-01
Intervention End Date
2022-02-28

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Binary outcome:
- Fully paid (0 if the penalty is not paid promptly and 1 if the penalty is paid promptly within 30 days after the issuing date).
- Taxpayer enquiry (0 if the penalty is left updaied and 1 if the taxpayer enquiring instalment, adjournment, abatement, or abolishment).

Continuous outcome:
- The amount paid (in IDR)
Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
The trial will be performed in cooperation with the Indonesian Tax Authority and will cover four regional tax offices (28 district tax offices). In total, the field experiment's sample consists of approximately 9,000 individual taxpayers that will be assigned to control and three treatment groups. Half of the sample (4,500 taxpayers) will be assigned to control and each of the treatment group will be assigned 1,500 taxpayers.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Stratified randomisation will be performed using user written STATA command RANDTREAT (v1.4).
Randomization Unit
Individual (taxpayer) level randomisation will be performed.
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
N/A
Sample size: planned number of observations
9,000 taxpayers
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
N/A
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
IRB Approval Date
IRB Approval Number
Analysis Plan

Post-Trial

Post Trial Information

Study Withdrawal

There is information in this trial unavailable to the public. Use the button below to request access.

Request Information

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