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Why Don’t Firms File Tax Returns on Time? Evidence from the Indian GST

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posted on 2024-09-26, 13:55 authored by Bhanu Gupta, Tejaswi Velayudhan, Prince Dhawan, Ankur Garg

Information is central to tax enforcement, and taxpayers’ regular filings provide crucial information for the enforcement of value-added taxes (VAT). Yet, some taxpayers either do not file their returns or file them a long time after the deadline. With tax filings completely digitised in many countries, it is surprising that filing non-compliance remains high. IMF data suggest that between 20 and 60 per cent of eligible returns are unfiled across all major taxes, especially in low-income countries (Brockmeyer et al. 2019). This paper reports on an attempt to improve filing compliance for the Indian VAT, known as the Goods and Services Tax (GST), through low-cost behavioural nudges.

Summary of ICTD Working Paper 207.

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Publisher

Institute of Development Studies

Citation

Gupta, B.; Velayudhan, T.; Dhawan, P. and Garg, A. (2024) Why Don’t Firms File Tax Returns on Time? Evidence from the Indian GST, ICTD Research in Brief 127, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies, DOI: 10.19088/ICTD.2024.085

Series

ICTD Research in Brief 127

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  • VoR (Version of Record)

IDS Item Types

Series paper (non-IDS); ICTD Research in Brief; ICTD RiB

Copyright holder

© Institute of Development Studies 2024

Country

India

Language

en

IDS team

ICTD

Pagination

2pp

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    International Centre for Tax and Development

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