Tax Evasion and Community Effects in Italy

Francesco Russo

CSEF Working Papers from Centre for Studies in Economics and Finance (CSEF), University of Naples, Italy

Abstract: I propose an analysis of tax evasion in Italy using the data collected by the website evasori.info. This site collects reports by random internet users of the transactions in which they were involved that, lacking any legal receipt, were hidden from the tax authority. I interpret this experiment as a test of the attitude towards tax evasion by the community in which the tax offender operates: less reported episodes are an indication of a more lenient attitude. Since a more lenient attitude of the community is a lower cost of evading taxes, a smaller number of reports must be associated to less tax evasion. I show that the data confirm this claim. I also show that the presence of younger, less educated individuals and the size of the irregular labor force are associated to a more lenient attitude towards tax evasion.

Keywords: Tax Morale; Tax Evasion Reports (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H26 K34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-06-03
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc, nep-law, nep-pbe and nep-pub
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published with the title "Tax Morale and Tax Evasion Reports.” in Economics Letters, 2013, 121(1), 110-114

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sef:csefwp:254

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