Tax enforcement interventions to improve VAT-reporting

Last registered on December 10, 2021

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Tax enforcement interventions to improve VAT-reporting

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0008688

Initial registration date

December 10, 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

December 10, 2021, 3:10 PM EST

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

Locations

Country

Norway

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Andreas Kotsadam

Affiliation

University of Oslo

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Oddbjørn Raaum

PI Affiliation

PI Name

Knut Løyland

PI Affiliation

PI Name

Gaute Torsvik

PI Affiliation

PI Name

Arnstein Øvrum

PI Affiliation

Additional Trial Information

Status

On going

Start date

2021-09-15

End date

2023-11-01

Keywords

Firms & Productivity, Governance

Additional Keywords

Tax

JEL code(s)

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

Using a large scale field experiment, we compare the effects of three different tax enforcement policies to increase compliance with VAT reporting for newly established firms. In this pre-analysis plan we describe the treatments and lay out some important decisions with respect to coding of variables, definitions of samples and the empirical strategy we will apply.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Kotsadam, Andreas et al. 2021. "Tax enforcement interventions to improve VAT-reporting." AEA RCT Registry. December 10. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.8688-1.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

Three different enforcement policies to increase compliance with VAT reporting for newly established firms..
1) The Letter treatment informs the entity that a dedicated National Tax Authority caseworker can be contacted if need to sort out any question and give contact information the him/her.
2) The Telephone goes one step further as it involves a call from a NTA caseworker where the entity is offered guidance if needed.
3) The Audit is similar to a desk based correspondence audit. If an entity is selected for an audit, NTA is obliged to inform the entity ahead of inspection.

Intervention Start Date

2021-09-15

Intervention End Date

2022-02-28

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

Net VAT reported and number of errors.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

The population is businesses that report bi-monthly with first time registration in the VAT register in the period from 01.05.2019 until 30.04.2021, including around 50,000 entities.

These entities are randomly allocated to four different groups; a control group (with no special intervention), two information treatments (letter and telephone) and one audit treatment.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Computer randomization

Randomization Unit

Firms

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

50495 firms

Sample size: planned number of observations

50495 firms

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

In the smallest treatment group, the audit, we have 19442 firms out of which 1059 are treated.

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

We have 19442 observations for the audit study but only 1059 assigned to audit. At the conventional level of significance of 0.05 and a power of 0.8, this would allow for a minimum detectable effect of 0.09 standard deviations.

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB