We apply a direct method to estimate tax evasion in Italy, assuming that tax evaders might consider declaring a closer-to-true income in an anonymous interview. The methodology is applied to employed and self-employed taxpayers, combining the Survey of Household Income and Wealth (SHIW) by the...

The methods generally used to estimate the loss of revenue from tax evasioncan be divided into two types: the macroeconomic approach (or top-down) and the micro (orbottom-up). The first is based on a comparison between fiscal data from Ministry of Financeand aggregate data from national...