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Tax Professionals:Tax-Evasion Facilitators or Information Hubs?

Author

Listed:
  • Marco Battaglini

    (Cornell University and EIEF)

  • Luigi Guiso

    (EIEF)

  • Chiara Lacava

    (Goethe University and SAFE)

  • Eleonora Patacchini

    (Cornell University and EIEF)

Abstract
To study the role of tax professionals, we merge tax records of 2.5 million taxpayers in Italy with the respective audit files from the tax revenue agency. Our data covers the entire population of sole proprietorship taxpayers in seven regions, followed over seven fiscal years. We first document that tax evasion is systematically correlated with the average evasion of other customers of the same tax professional. We then exploit the unique structure of our dataset to study the channels through which these social spillover effects are generated. Guided by an equilibrium model of tax compliance with tax professionals and auditing, we highlight two mechanisms that may be behind this phenomenon: self-selection of taxpayers who sort themselves into professionals of heterogeneous tolerance for tax evasion; and informational externalities generated by the tax professional activities. We provide evidence supporting the simultaneous presence of both mechanisms.

Suggested Citation

  • Marco Battaglini & Luigi Guiso & Chiara Lacava & Eleonora Patacchini, 2019. "Tax Professionals:Tax-Evasion Facilitators or Information Hubs?," EIEF Working Papers Series 1904, Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF), revised Apr 2019.
    • Handle: RePEc:eie:wpaper:1904
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    Cited by:

    1. Guzzardi, Demetrio & Morelli, Salvatore, 2024. "A New Geography of Inequality: Top Incomes in Italian Regions and Inner Areas," SocArXiv b2yue, Center for Open Science.
    2. Guillermo Cruces & Dario Tortarolo & Gonzalo Vazquez-Bare, 2022. "Design of two-stage experiments with an application to spillovers in tax compliance," IFS Working Papers W22/32, Institute for Fiscal Studies.
    3. Acconcia, Antonio & D’Amato, Marcello & Martina, Riccardo & Ratto, Marisa, 2022. "The response of taxpayer compliance to the large shock of Italian unification," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    4. Eberhartinger, Eva & Safaei, Reyhaneh & Sureth, Caren & Wu, Yuchen, 2021. "Are risk-based tax audit stretegies rewarded? An analysis of corporate tax avoidance," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 267, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • K34 - Law and Economics - - Other Substantive Areas of Law - - - Tax Law

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