Not logged in.
Quick Search - Contribution
Contribution Details
| Type | Journal Article |
| Scope | Discipline-based scholarship |
| Title | Ghosting the tax authority: fake firms and tax fraud in Ecuador |
| Organization Unit | |
| Authors |
|
| Item Subtype | Original Work |
| Refereed | Yes |
| Status | Published in final form |
| Language |
|
| Journal Title | American Economic Review: Insights |
| Publisher | American Economic Association |
| Geographical Reach | international |
| ISSN | 2640-205X |
| Volume | 5 |
| Number | 4 |
| Page Range | 427 - 444 |
| Date | 2023 |
| Abstract Text | An important but poorly understood form of firm tax evasion arises from “ghost firms” - fake firms that issue fraudulent receipts so that their clients can claim false deductions. We provide a unique window into this global phenomenon using transaction-level tax data from Ecuador. Five percent of firms use ghost invoices annually. Among these firms, ghost transactions comprise 14 percent of purchases. Ghost transactions are prevalent among large firms and firms with high-income owners and exhibit suspicious patterns, such as bunching below financial system thresholds. An innovative enforcement intervention targeting ghost clients rather than ghosts themselves led to substantial tax recovery. |
| Related URLs | |
| Digital Object Identifier | 10.1257/aeri.20220321 |
| Other Identification Number | merlin-id:24353 |
| PDF File |
Download from ZORA
|
| Export |
BibTeX
EP3 XML (ZORA)
|
| Keywords | Materials chemistry, economics and econometrics, media technology, forestry |
| Additional Information | Copyright American Economic Association; reproduced with permission; Bereits als Working Paper in URPP Equality of Opportunity Discussion Paper Series No. 12 erschienen: https://www.zora.uzh.ch/id/eprint/252206/ |