Missing Miles: Evasion Responses to Car Taxes

Tuomas Kosonen, Jarkko Harju and Joel Slemrod

No 318, Working Papers from Työn ja talouden tutkimus LABORE, The Labour Institute for Economic Research LABORE

Abstract: We study a tax evasion response to car taxes in Finland, where used car importers overstate the mileage to reduce tax liability. First, we develop a tax evasion measure by comparing reported mileage upon import with subsequent information from vehicle inspections, and find that a decline in mileage — ”missing miles” occurs frequently. Second, we analyze a tax rate increase, and observe a reduction in the number of imported used cars, but only among non-evaders. Finally, we analyze an RCT varying the salience of tax enforcement measures, which suggests that providing information about new measures reduces missing miles.

Keywords: car tax; tax evasion; enforcement measures (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 H21 H23 H26 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 43 pages
Date: 2017-12-01
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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https://labore.fi/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Tyopapereita-318.pdf First version, 2017 (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Missing miles: Evasion responses to car taxes (2020)
Working Paper: Missing Miles: Evasion Responses to Car Taxes (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pst:wpaper:318

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