The Income Tax Compliance Costs of Private Households: Empirical Evidence from Germany

Autor:	Frank Hechtner, Janine K. Jarzembski, Kay Blaufus
Rok vydání:	2019
Předmět:	Economics and Econometrics 050208 finance Public Administration 05 social sciences language.human_language Compliance (psychology) German Income tax 0502 economics and business language Economics Personal income tax Demographic economics 050207 economics Empirical evidence Finance
Zdroj:	Public Finance Review. 47:925-966
ISSN:	1552-7530 1091-1421
DOI:	10.1177/1091142119866147
Popis:	Using a survey of more than 18,000 taxpayers in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany), we estimate the income tax compliance costs of German households and study the determinants of these costs. We find that taxpayers need between 9.13 and 10.23 hours and spend €106 to meet their income tax obligations. The average total burden is between €228 (lower bound estimate) and €321 (upper bound estimate). The aggregate cost burden ranges between 2.03 percent and 2.92 percent of the German income tax revenues of tax year 2015. Although these costs have decreased significantly over recent years (mainly for self-preparers without self-employment income), international comparisons illustrate that the German burden is still located in the upper middle. The five most important cost drivers that increase individual costs are the use of tax advice, the appeal procedure, income, return complexity, and education. We cannot confirm that e-filing reduces taxpayers’ compliance costs.
Databáze:	OpenAIRE
Externí odkaz:	https://explore.openaire.eu/search/publication?articleId=doi_________::d93a06c937b61d2c051335f11f04cc0c https://doi.org/10.1177/1091142119866147 Zobrazit plný text záznamu