Tax compliance

Tax compliance is the degree to which taxpayers meet legal duties to register, report, and pay taxes. It includes accurate disclosure and timely payment under applicable tax law.

Tax withholding: Tax withheld from income by a payer and remitted directly to a government. Withholding collects liabilities before taxpayers file returns, reducing some opportunities for underpayment.
Tax registration: The process by which a person or business enrolls with a tax authority as a taxpayer. Registration determines whether liable taxpayers enter the system at all.
Tax morale: The intrinsic motivation to pay taxes and comply with tax laws. Tax morale helps explain why some people comply beyond what audits and penalties alone predict.
Tax incidence: The distribution of a tax’s economic burden among people and businesses. Uneven compliance can shift effective tax burdens toward those whose obligations are easiest to enforce.
Tax return: A document reporting income, deductions, credits, and tax liability to a tax authority. Returns are the main channel through which taxpayers disclose information and calculate liabilities.
Tax filing: Submitting required tax returns or reports to a government authority. Filing compliance concerns whether required declarations arrive by the applicable deadline.
Tax amnesty: A limited government program that waives or reduces penalties for taxpayers who disclose or settle past liabilities. Amnesties can bring hidden liabilities into the system, but may affect future compliance expectations.
Fiscal capacity: A government’s ability to raise revenue from its economy and population. Reliable compliance expands the revenue a state can collect under its tax laws.
Tax audit: An examination of a taxpayer’s records and declarations by a tax authority. Audits test reported information and make detection of noncompliance more likely.
Tax evasion: The illegal deliberate concealment or misrepresentation of tax liability to avoid payment. Evasion is intentional noncompliance, distinct from mistakes and lawful tax planning.

Linked from 10 pages