Research Insights: How to Best Remind Taxpayers of Their Obligations?

Tax compliance can be affected by how taxpayers are informed of their outstanding liabilities. In Colombia, in-person visits from a tax inspector were compared to more impersonal methods such as mailers and emails. Getting a message through any channel had a positive impact on tax compliance, but almost everyone who received a visit from the tax collector made some kind of payment. A spillover effect was found for the payment of other tax obligations by those targeted during the experiment.