Recession and Tax Compliance – The Case of Slovenia

Abstract

In this paper, we focus on the area of public finances, where the consequences of recession and government's responses to its effects significantly influenced some macroeconomic categories. Government deficits and government debts increased and collected revenues dropped. In addition, the economic crisis influenced a basic element of modern tax systems, i.e. tax compliance, where the consequence has been an increase in the tax debt. Data for Slovenia show that the amount of outstanding tax obligations during the recession increases, while the amount of collected revenues simultaneously drops. Thus, in 2011, the amount of tax debt grew to over 0.9 billion EUR, which is equivalent to the deficit in the general public finance budget.

In our analysis, we examine the influence the recession has had on tax compliance in Slovenia. As a measure for non-compliance, we used data on tax debt (unpaid taxes). On the basis of the tax debt fluctuations and the results of regression model, we have discovered that economic fluctuations have significantly influenced the level of tax compliance. As significant explanatory variables, we point to the fluctuations of the average wages in the private sector and also the unemployment rate, which has been steadily increasing during the course of the recession. We also believe that the possibility for less restrictive measures of fiscal policy during the times of economic recession (tax enforcement activities, temporary reprieves, and instalment plans) is worth discussing.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.25.2.1743