Talk:Tax evasion

Article split
For older discussions see Talk:Tax noncompliance (previously Talk:Tax avoidance and evasion). Nirvana2013 (talk) 07:59, 22 October 2011 (UTC)

Taxation without representation
So is it evasion if you avoid paying taxes that have no representation.. In particular for taxes that are not benefiting you.. Also would you send someone to jail who is going to cause a greater tax burden on America who was caught for "tax evasion".. I think this country seeks to fix problems with the wrong approach and just keeps itself in debt cause of its need to punish people.. But who is really getting punished in the end? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.210.211.110 (talk) 12:53, 3 January 2012 (UTC)

Merge of Tax evasion investigations
Propose that the above be merged here. It is entirely about the United States and I don't think there's enough in there that is notable and reliably sourced to warrant an article. Itsmejudith (talk) 16:04, 4 January 2010 (UTC)
 * Support Nirvana2013 (talk) 08:06, 22 October 2011 (UTC)
 * ✅ Nirvana2013 (talk) 16:11, 22 October 2011 (UTC)

non-partisan revisions
First, Ted Stevens "conviction" was set aside when the prosecutor was found to have acted with gross misconduct. At a minimum, this should be included in the article, or bettter yet, all mention of his "conviction" should be removed from this list.

Source: http://articles.cnn.com/2009-04-07/politics/ted.stevens_1_justice-system-justice-department-whistle-blower?_s=PM:POLITICS

Second, why are there "R"s associated with Abramoff and Carpenter? Neither, at the time of conviction or any other, held elected or appointed office as Republicans, or held leadership positions in the Republican National Committee, or to my knowledge any State Republican Party? Just because they held "Republican" beliefs shouldn't qualify them as "R"s, unless you also put a "D" behind Marc Rich and Pincus Green and perhaps Wesley Snipes. (and no, you shouldn't do that either) — Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.130.15.14 (talk) 14:47, 17 February 2012 (UTC)

Actual Tax Fraud
Should there not be some discussion (somewhere) of actual tax fraud? That is, the filing of a return using a stolen identity and fictional information, followed by disappearing with the refund... NitPicker769 (talk) 22:57, 10 June 2013 (UTC)


 * Well, that would be one example of "actual tax fraud." Famspear (talk) 01:53, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

Typical tax evader in the Highest Tax Bracket
"The typical tax evader in the United States is a male under the age of 50 in the highest tax bracket and with a complicated tax return. The most common means of tax evasion is overstatement of charitable contributions, particularly church donations.[19]"

how can this be true when so few people are in the highest tax bracket. Only 500 individual pay the highest level of tax. 70.110.23.243 (talk) 08:55, 28 March 2014 (UTC)


 * You're right. And the source material does not say "in the highest tax bracket." It says, "in a high tax bracket." That can make a big difference. I corrected the article to reflect what the source actually says. Famspear (talk) 14:27, 28 March 2014 (UTC)

clean up comment
I stopped on the page, and did a tiny little bit up clean up. I tried to understand why the flag for contradiction was placed in the US section, esp since nothing was posted here on this, the talk page. I cannot find any contradiction in the section and will remove the flag. If anyone disagrees, please ping me, as I am not intending to watch this page.--Wuerzele (talk) 01:39, 3 January 2015 (UTC)

Tax gap or tax evasion
The figures for the USA say "tax gap" and seem to be a lot bigger than the corresponding figures for the UK tax evasion. Seeing as this is an article on tax evasion, surely the figures should quote the amount lost to evasion, not the overall tax gap, which includes error, legal avoidance, the black economy and non-payment.Absolutelypuremilk (talk) 16:20, 3 August 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/20110903121846/http://www.aicels.org/aicels/Interduction_to_czech_law_-_AICELS%20-%20Abstract1.pdf to http://www.aicels.org/aicels/Interduction_to_czech_law_-_AICELS%20-%20Abstract1.pdf
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Dr. Dzhumashev's comment on this article
Dr. Dzhumashev has reviewed this Wikipedia page, and provided us with the following comments to improve its quality:

"The literature's theoretical models are elegant in their effort to identify the variables likely to affect non-compliance. Alternative specifications, however, yield conflicting results concerning both the signs and magnitudes of variables believed to affect tax evasion. Empirical work is required to resolve the theoretical ambiguities. Income tax evasion appears to be positively influenced by the tax rate, the unemployment rate, the level of income and dissatisfaction with government

This passage can be chnaged as follows: The literature's theoretical models, however, yield conflicting results concerning both the signs and magnitudes of variables believed to affect tax evasion. For example, differing from Allingham and Sandmo (1972), Yitzhaki (1974) showed that when the government imposes penalties on the amount of evaded taxes (as it is often the case in many countries), then the theoretical prediction of a standard portfolio theory-based tax evasion model is that higher taxes encourage tax compliance. Empirical work is required to resolve the theoretical ambiguities. Income tax evasion appears to be positively influenced by the tax rate, the unemployment rate, the level of income and dissatisfaction with government."

We hope Wikipedians on this talk page can take advantage of these comments and improve the quality of the article accordingly.

Dr. Dzhumashev has published scholarly research which seems to be relevant to this Wikipedia article:


 * Reference : Ratbek Dzhumashev & Emin Gahramanov, 2009. "A Stochastic Growth Model with Income Tax Evasion: Implications for Australia," Economics Series 2009_05, Deakin University, Faculty of Business and Law, School of Accounting, Economics and Finance.

ExpertIdeasBot (talk) 15:33, 19 May 2016 (UTC)

Dr. Winner's comment on this article
Dr. Winner has reviewed this Wikipedia page, and provided us with the following comments to improve its quality: "According to the authors, the level of evasion of income tax depends on the level of punishment provided by law. According to the authors, the level of evasion of income tax depends on the detection probability and the level of punishment provided by law.

Comments: Cross border VAT should be described in more detail: source and destination principle."

We hope Wikipedians on this talk page can take advantage of these comments and improve the quality of the article accordingly.

We believe Dr. Winner has expertise on the topic of this article, since he has published relevant scholarly research:


 * Reference 1: Ralph-C. Bayer & Harald Oberhofer & Hannes Winner, 2014. "The Occurrence of Tax Amnesties. Theory and Evidence," WIFO Working Papers 487, WIFO.


 * Reference 2: Jorg Paetzold & Hannes Winner, 2014. "Taking the High Road? Compliance with Commuter Tax Allowances and the Role of Evasion Spillovers," NRN working papers 2014-11, The Austrian Center for Labor Economics and the Analysis of the Welfare State, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Austria.

ExpertIdeasBot (talk) 16:15, 11 July 2016 (UTC)


 * I have changed the statement about the level of income tax evasion. I have no knowledge of cross-border VAT so will leave that up to someone else. Absolutelypuremilk (talk) 16:49, 11 July 2016 (UTC)

Dr. Pellizzari's comment on this article
Dr. Pellizzari has reviewed this Wikipedia page, and provided us with the following comments to improve its quality:

"- reference 1: the link is broken and one version can be found at https://digitalcollections.anu.edu.au/bitstream/1885/41624/2/WP6.pdf - I feel the introduction and the section "Economics of tax evasion" are well written. The remaining part is less structured and it is difficult to get a coherent picture"

We hope Wikipedians on this talk page can take advantage of these comments and improve the quality of the article accordingly.

We believe Dr. Pellizzari has expertise on the topic of this article, since he has published relevant scholarly research:


 * Reference : Paolo Pellizzari & Dino Rizzi, 2012. "Citizenship and Power in an Agent-based Model of Tax Compliance with Public Expenditure," Working Papers 2012_24, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari", revised 2012.

ExpertIdeasBot (talk) 19:18, 26 July 2016 (UTC)

External links modified
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