State income tax amnesties: Causes

Creators: Dubin, Jeffrey A.; Graetz, Michael J.; Wilde, Louis L.

Abstract

This paper analyzes empirically for the years 1980-1988 the factors that led states with state income taxes to run tax amnesty programs. We find that the potential yield from an amnesty is more important than the fiscal status of a state. Furthermore, we estimate that if the IRS audit rate had remained constant during the 1980-1988 period (instead of falling by almost one half), then the cumulative probability that an average state would have had a tax amnesty by 1988 would have fallen by just over 25 percent.

Additional Information

© 1992 Oxford University Press. Michael J. Graetz thanks the National Science Foundation for research support (grant no. SES-870443) as do Jeffrey A. Dubin and Louis L. Wilde (grant no. SES-8701027). We thank Mike McDonald and Mike Udell for research assistance. This paper is a revised version of Dubin, Graetz, and Wilde [1989]. Graetz is currently serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary (Tax Policy) of the Treasury. This research was conducted before Graetz assumed that office and does not necessarily reflect the views of the Treasury Department. We also acknowledge the comments of seminar participants at the University of California at Los Angeles, Claremont College, McMaster University, and the NBER Summer Institute as well as those of an anonymous referee, and two members of the board of editors. Formerly SSWP 712.

Attached Files

Published - sswp712_-_published.pdf

Files

sswp712_-_published.pdf

Files (502.9 kB)

Name	Size	Download all
sswp712_-_published.pdf md5:85a75994f060ae88aebb31e7f50dd1fc	502.9 kB	Preview Download

Additional details

	All versions	This version
Views	0	0
Downloads	0	0
Data volume	0 Bytes	0 Bytes