Understanding VAT Evasion and Fraud

-该项目旨在结合理论，实验和实证研究方面的专业知识，以解决以下问题：增值税逃税和增值税欺诈的决定因素是什么？针对它的政策措施效果如何？如果对消费者交易的应税业务不征收增值税，就会出现逃税现象。如果销售者消失，销售增值税没有转移到税务机关，例如，通过伪造破产，没有将税收收入转移到税务机关，就构成了欺诈。增值税欺诈经常发生在企业之间的环境中。——本项目以增值税为研究重点，超越了传统的逃税研究范围。从设计上讲，增值税是一种先进的税收工具，由买方和卖方两方产生有关应税基础的信息。因此，规避和欺诈导致了价值链不同阶段的代理商之间的互动。信息的时机，犯罪合作和收集之间复杂的相互作用产生了机会，这些机会不仅是增值税欺诈的特征，也是其他类型的现代税务欺诈的特征。现有的统计数据显示了巨大的收入损失。——尽管增值税作为收入来源发挥着关键作用，但现有文献没有考虑到价值链上逃税和欺诈的不同动机。对打击增值税逃税和欺诈措施的效果也缺乏研究。为了填补这一空白，该项目的实验研究部分允许对各种政策干预的效果进行严格比较。该项目的实证研究部分利用实际税收改革作为准实验，以评估解决增值税不合规问题的政策结果。该研究项目不仅评估了以遏制逃税的方式设计税收的可用选择。通过在实验实验室环境中实施特定的税收制度，它还探索了使用实验研究来解决公共政策中的实际问题，更具体地说，是在税收和税收管理方面。据我们所知，该项目构成了第一个严格的实验框架，比较了针对增值税制度绩效的不同政策措施。本项目将实验研究与实证分析相结合。在处理类似的研究问题时，这种方法的重叠是协同的，可以进行更全面的分析，这对拟议研究项目的各个部分都是有利的。该项目还增加了使用德国个人税务档案研究税收问题的小型文献。虽然随着在统计部门和研究机构引入研究数据中心（Forschungsdatenzentren），德国在数据基础设施方面取得了一些进展，但与其他欧洲国家和美国相比，德国在利用微数据进行税收实证研究方面仍然非常落后。

-- The project seeks to combine expertise in theoretical, experimental and empirical research to address the following questions: What are the determinants of VAT evasion and VAT fraud? How effective are policy measures against it? Evasion arises if VAT is not charged on taxable business to consumer transactions. Fraud emerges if VAT charged on sales is not transferred to the tax authorities as the seller disappears, for instance, through forged bankruptcy without transferring the tax revenues to the tax authorities. VAT fraud often takes place in a business to business environment. -- By focusing on VAT, this project moves beyond the scope of traditional tax evasion research. By design VAT is an advanced tax instrument that generates information on the taxable base by two parties: buyers and sellers. Therefore, evasion and fraud induce interaction between agents at different stages of the value chain. The intricate interplay between timing of information, criminal collaboration, and collection gives rise to opportunities which are characteristic not only for VAT fraud but also for other types of modern tax fraud. Available statistics point at huge revenue losses.-- Despite the key role of VAT as a revenue source, the existing literature has not taken into account the different incentives for evasion and fraud along the value chain. Research is also lacking on the effects of measures against VAT evasion and fraud. To fill in this gap, the experimental research part of the project allows for a rigorous comparison of the effects of various policy interventions. The empirical research part of the project exploits actual tax reforms as quasi-experiments in order to evaluate the outcome of policies tackling VAT noncompliance.-- The research project does not only assess available options to designing taxes in ways that curb tax evasion. By implementing specific tax institutions in an experimental laboratory setting, it also explores the use of experimental research for solving practical problems in public policy, more specifically in taxation and tax administration. To our knowledge, this project constitutes the first rigorous experimental framework that compares different policy measures targeting the performance of the VAT system. The project combines experimental research with empirical analyses. This overlap of methodologies in addressing similar research questions is synergetic and permits a more comprehensive analysis that will be mutually advantageous for the individual parts of the proposed research project. -- The project also adds to the small literature studying tax issues using individual tax files for Germany. While some progress has been made in the data infrastructure with the introduction of research data centers (Forschungsdatenzentren) at statistical offices and research institutes, compared with other European countries and the US, empirical research on taxation using microdata in Germany is still hugely underdeveloped.