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

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Peer Reviewed icon Peer Reviewed
Date issued
May 2020
Subject
Tax Compliance;
Taxation;
Taxpayer;
Behavioral Economics;
Tax Collection
JEL code
C93 - Field Experiments;
H26 - Tax Evasion and Avoidance;
D03 - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
Country
Colombia
Category
Catalogs and Brochures
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.