Complexity, compliance and tax collection

This paper aims to present the cost of tax compliance in Brazilian states and to examine whether tax complexity affects compliance costs and whether they affect collection. The results show that: (a) companies from all Brazilian states incur an ICMS compliance cost, considering tax employees alone,...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Cabello, Otávio Gomes, Nakao, Silvio Hiroshi
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)
Repositorio:Economia e Sociedade
Idioma:portugués
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br:article/8668843
Acceso en línea:https://periodicos.sbu.unicamp.br/ojs/index.php/ecos/article/view/8668843
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Tax complexity
Tax compliance
Tax collection
Compliance cost
Complexidade tributária
Conformidade tributária
Arrecadação tributária
Custo de conformidade
Descripción
Sumario:This paper aims to present the cost of tax compliance in Brazilian states and to examine whether tax complexity affects compliance costs and whether they affect collection. The results show that: (a) companies from all Brazilian states incur an ICMS compliance cost, considering tax employees alone, at an average of 1.5% of the ICMS; and (b) that greater tax complexity leads to higher compliance costs, which lead to an increase in tax collection. This means that increasing tax complexity can make the economic system less efficient and competitive, as the increase in the complexity of legislation must be accompanied by taxpayer enforcement to incur additional costs in order to increase collection. This paper contributes to the debate about tax simplification and its economic effects as well as to the literature on compliance costs.