How Taxing Is Tax Filing? Using Revealed Preferences to Estimate Compliance Costs

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Benzarti, Youssef
• 署名单位: University of California System; University of California Santa Barbara; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC JOURNAL-ECONOMIC POLICY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1945-7731
• DOI: 10.1257/pol.20180664
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 38-57
• 关键词: frictions

摘要

This paper uses a uasi-experimental design to estimate the cost of filing taxes. Using US tax returns, I observe how taxpayers choose between itemizing deductions and claiming the standard deduction. Taxpayers forgo large tax savings to avoid compliance costs, which provides a revealed preference estimate of such costs. I show that costs increase with income, consistent with an opportunity cost of time explanation. These estimates suggest substantial costs of filing federal income taxes, significantly larger than previously estimated using surveys.