Can pre-populated tax returns enhance tax compliance?: the effects of the Spanish renta web initiative from a sociology of taxation perspective

Abstract

This paper explores the effects of pre-populated personal income tax returns on taxpayers´ tax morale and tax filing behavior. The special questionnaire on Renta Web included in the 2016 wave of the Spanish Institute for Fiscal Studies Fiscal Barometer surveyed individual perceptions on pre-populating income tax returns. Using probit regression analysis, we examine whether pre-population affects tax morale. Secondly, we test whether pre-population influences perceptions of tax filing behavior. Our main results show that the relationship between making changes on the pre-filled tax form and the likelihood of being audited influences the tax morale of Spaniards, as well as their perceptions of tax filing behavior. And on their own, prepopulation features do not have a clear impact on tax morale or tax filing behavior. The results may have several clear policy implications