VOX:
Can giving taxpayers a voice increase tax compliance?
30 May 2014
Non-compliance with tax costs governments billions, in part because people really don't like paying taxes. This column reports two experiments designed to see if it's possible to make people hate taxes a little less and raise tax compliance. The results indicate that if people are given the opportunity to express a preference (though not actually make the final decisions) on how their taxes are spent, they are much less likely to cheat. Simply by making the tax form more interactive, governments could increase tax compliance, while empowering citizens and improving their attitudes towards taxation.
This article was published online by VOX on May 30, 2014
Link to article here
Related publications
'Eliciting Taxpayer Preferences Increases Tax Compliance', Cait Lamberton, Jan-Emmanuel De Neve and Michael L. Norton, Centre for Economic Performance Discussion Paper No.1270, May 2014
Related links
Jan-Emmanuel De Neve webpage
Wellbeing Programme webpage