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

Last registered on September 28, 2021
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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.

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
In development
Start date
2021-09-01
End date
2022-01-31
Keywords
Behavior
Additional Keywords
Tax penalties
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
Gray, Daniel J., Matthew D. Rablen and Eko Arief Yogama. 2021. "Nudging for Prompt Tax Penalty Payment: A Field Experiment on Tax Penalty Collection in Indonesia." AEA RCT Registry. September 28. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8277-1.0
Sponsors & Partners
Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
A physical letter will be sent as an attachment to the standard notice of tax penalties sent to taxpayer. There will be treatment groups receiving three 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
2021-10-01
Intervention End Date
2021-10-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Binary outcome (0 if the penalty is not paid promptly and 1 if the penalty is paid promptly (within 30 days after the issuing date).
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 regions. 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 will be assigned to control and 1,500 taxpayers will be assigned to each treatment group.
Experimental Design Details
Randomization Method
Stratified randomisation by STATA
Randomization Unit
Individual randomisation
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
-
Sample size: planned number of observations
9,000 taxpayers
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
-
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

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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