The resource cost of operating the income tax system is large, totaling as much as seven to eight percent of revenue raised. One source of this cost is the system of itemized deductions, which can require extensive record keeping and calculation. This paper estimates the resource cost of...

This paper estimates the cost of filing taxes and assesses several policy proposals aimed at reducing these costs. Using US tax returns, a quasi-experimental method and additional extrapolations based on survey evidence, I uncover three main findings. First, filing costs are large and have been...

The legal principle of offset has played a key role in debt collection by private parties for centuries. In 2021, offset plays an equally essential role in the United States government’s collection of debts owed to it, accounting for billions of dollars in funds taken from outgoing payments....

The complexity of the income tax is an unending source of complaint. Compliance costs have received increasing attention and are estimated to be large. Yet most recognize that some degree of complexity is necessary if ability to pay is to be measured accurately. This article presents a framework...

FIN 48, Accounting for Uncertainty in Income Taxes, standardizes accounting for uncertain tax benefits and requires companies to disclose their tax reserve amounts. We summarize hand-collected disclosures related to tax reserves from 2005 through the first quarter of 2007. For the largest 100...

This study discusses options how to increase the Dominican Republic tax revenue and attempts to identify priority areas for efficiency-enhancing reforms. A 2016 World Bank report on Dominican fiscal policy found that the country's tax expenditures were poorly targeted and regressively...

This paper estimates the cost of filing taxes and assesses several policy proposals aimed at reducing these costs. Using US tax returns, a quasi-experimental method and additional extrapolations based on survey evidence, I uncover three main findings. First, filing costs are large and have been...

Governments and non-profits devote substantial resources to increasing take-up of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) through educational outreach. We study a different approach: policies that encourage tax filing. In a large field experiment, we find that IRS letters about free tax preparation...