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Journal of Business Economics
Erschienen in: Journal of Business Economics 3/2015

01.04.2015 | Original Paper

Does professional tax preparation matter? Empirical evidence from Germany

verfasst von: Maximilian Kittl

Erschienen in: Journal of Business Economics | Ausgabe 3/2015

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Abstract

This paper is an empirical assessment of the average effect of tax consultants on non-business taxpayers’ tax burden. The author uses German income tax return data to identify tax returns filed by a tax consultant. In contrast to previous research, propensity score matching is used to construct an appropriate control group to eliminate problems arising from self-selection. The effect of tax consultants is found to be twofold and depends on the income level. On the one hand, tax consultants reduce the tax burden of clients on a high income. Possible reasons for this are the progressive income tax rate as well as income-dependent deductions, e.g., donations, which offer tax consultants greater scope to make use of their superior tax knowledge. However, this effect is reversed for clients on comparatively low incomes. This finding is in line with the interpretation that, besides the already identified disburdening impact, a tax consultant can also act as a preceding enforcement instance that mitigates clients’ excessively aggressive filing strategies.
Vorheriger Artikel Effort provision in entrepreneurial teams: effects of team size, free-riding and peer pressure
Nächster Artikel Me, myself, and my university: a multilevel analysis of individual and institutional determinants of academic performance

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Journal of Business Economics

From January 2013, the Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft (ZfB) is published in English under the title Journal of Business Economics (JBE). The Journal of Business Economics (JBE) aims at encouraging theoretical and applied research in the field of business economics and business administration, promoting the exchange of ideas between science and practice.

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Fußnoten
1
All stated sections refer to the version effective in 2004.
 
2
It is assumed, that tax consultants will not advise filers to hide any gross earnings that are relevant for tax purposes.
 
3
The difference to the sample size of Blaufus et al. (2014) and partly Eichfelder et al. (2012) is largely attributable to the exclusion of taxpayers with income from rent and lease. However, since Blaufus et al. (2014) state that their results are robust with respect to this exclusion, both studies’ results ought to remain comparable.
 
4
Descriptive statistics of the unweighted sample can be found in Table 8 in the appendix.
 
5
Pearson correlation coefficients are available from the author on request.
 
6
The presented values materially also apply to model 2.
 
7
Propensity score matching is conducted with the Stata module PSMATCH2 (Leuven and Sianesi 2003).
 
8
When matching is conducted within a subsample, the logistic regression to calculate the propensity score is also restricted to this subsample. The subsamples’ regression results are available from the author on request.
 
9
Since the matching approaches themselves are not changed, the respective prior statements and references concerning matching quality also apply here.
 
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Metadaten
Titel
Does professional tax preparation matter? Empirical evidence from Germany
verfasst von
Maximilian Kittl
Publikationsdatum
01.04.2015
Verlag
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Erschienen in
Journal of Business Economics / Ausgabe 3/2015
Print ISSN: 0044-2372
Elektronische ISSN: 1861-8928
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11573-014-0733-5