The Review of Economics and Statistics Vol. 67 No. 2 1985
An Empirical Test for Tax Evasion
Abstract
This paper develops a methodology that uses microeconomic data from individual tax returns to test for the presence of tax evasion. The test is then applied to a large sample of taxpayers drawn from the U.S. Treasury tax file for 1977. The frequency of evasion indicated by the test is significantly greater than zero and within the wide range that other evidence suggests is the extent of evasion. The associations between evasion and characteristics of the taxpayer such as marginal tax rate, income, age, and marital status are also investigated and compared to the findings of earlier studies.
- DOI
- 10.2307/1924722
- Volume
- 67
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 232
- Sources
- openalex crossref