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| Type | Working Paper |
| Scope | Discipline-based scholarship |
| Title | Ghosting the tax authority: fake firms and tax fraud in Ecuador |
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| Institution | University of Zurich |
| Series Name | URPP Equality of Opportunity Discussion Paper Series |
| Number | 12 |
| Number of Pages | 22 |
| 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. 5% of firms use ghost invoices annually and, among these firms, ghost transactions comprise 14% of purchases. Ghost transactions are particularly 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. |
| Official URL | https://www.urpp-equality.uzh.ch/dam/jcr:5e1cd797-80c2-4091-994c-3c15b5ebc5ff/12_Ghosting_the_tax_authority.pdf |
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| Other Identification Number | merlin-id:24222 |
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