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TARC 8th Annual Conference 2020

Research conferences

Research conferences

8th Annual Conference of the Tax Administration Research Centre 15-17 December 2020

Recordings of many speakers at the Conference are available here

The Conference took place online for the first time due to COVID-19.  

It featured three outstanding keynote lectures delivered by prominent academics with significant contributions in their field and a policymaker with considerable experience in tax administration policy making. Professor James Alm is internationally renowned for his work on tax administration and the economics of taxation; Professor Judith Freedman has made a remarkable contribution to the field of taxation law and policy; and Frantisek Imrecze is Executive Secretary at the Intra-European Organisation of Tax Administrations.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on the health and social fabric of society and the economy of countries across the globe. Recent evidence suggests that in some countries, the pandemic has had a disproportionate and significant economic impact on sectors with high female employment, such as hospitality and personal care services. There is also evidence that developing countries have been affected substantially and will continue to suffer economically. The Annual Conference explored these issues in two roundtable discussions focusing on the impact of COVID-19 on gender, and the impact on tax and tax administration policies in Africa.

The conference paper presentations covered a broad range of topical issues in tax administration and policy including the analysis from different angles of VAT noncompliance (e.g. the role of Thresholds and Networks), the importance of nudging in improving tax compliance, the legal aspects of tax avoidance and the effectiveness of law enforcement. As always in TARC Annual Conferences, these were approached from different perspectives and through a multidisciplinary lens. 

TARC 2020 conference programme

Listen to the conference recordings of speakers here

Should you have any queries, please email tarc@exeter.ac.uk.

Conference programme

Morning session day 1

5 Papers each 20 minutes followed by Q&A

10:15 - 10:30

Welcome from David Allen, Pro-Vice Chancellor and Executive Dean, University of Exeter Business School

Introduction: Christos Kotsogiannis, Director of TARC

10:30 - 11:00 Mazhar Waseem: Overclaimed refunds, undeclared sales, and invoice mills; Nature and extent of non compliance in a Value-Added Tax.
11:00 - 11:30 Thiess Buettner: Income Tax deductibility of services to combat VAT evasion. 
11:30 - 12:00 Duccio Gamannossi degl' Innocenti: VAT threshold(s).
12:00 - 12:30 Angelos Alexopoulos: Fraud detection in VAT networks.
12:30 - 13:00  Athiphat Muthitacharoen: VAT threshold and small business behavior: Evidence from Thai tax returns.
13:00 - 13:45  BREAK 45 minutes (CHAT ROOM TIME) 

 

Afternoon session day 1

6 papers each 20 minutes followed by Q&A
Panel discussion 1 hour
Plenary session 55 minutes

13:45 - 14:15 Raffael Speitmann: Sweetheart Deals in Tax Bargaining? How Trust Affects Concessionary Behavior.
14:15 - 14:45 Puseletso Letete: OECD BEPS Action 1 as it pertains to tax administration and tax policy: Tax challenges of digitalisation of the economy on tax administration in selected SADC countries.
14:45 - 15:15 Mathias Dunker: Tax transparency through mandatory qualitative disclosures - Information context of UK tax strategy reports. 
15:15 - 15:45

George Turner: What gets measured gets done?

Conference Presentation

15:45 - 17:00

PANEL DISCUSSION

Roundtable discussion on COVID-19, tax and their related impacts on gender and in particular on women

Panel includes: Lotta Björklund Larsen, Sweden (Chair); Judith Freedman, UK; Neil Buchanan, USA; Jorge Atria, Chile; Birthe Larsen, Denmark; Emer Mulligan, Ireland and Mukulika Banerjee, India  

17:00 - 17:15 Afternoon break
17:15 - 17:45 Stephen Daly: Priority-setting in tax administration. 
17:45 - 18:15

Celebrate with Lynne Oats: John Hasseldine, Kevin Holland, Judith Freedman, Erich Kirchler, Nina Olson, Andy Lymer, Emer Mulligan, Rodrigo Ormeño- Pérez, Carla Edgley, John D’Attoma, Rebecca Boden

18:15 - 18:40

Plenary session: Judith Freedman

Administrative shaping of substantive law

Professor Freedman has written up her lecture in short form for the Tax Journal: Tax administration shaping tax reform: does employment status matter for tax?

18:40 - 19:00 Plenary Q&A 

Morning Session Day 2

5 Papers each 20 minutes followed by Q&A

10:15 - 10:30 Welcome to Day 2 and Introduction to TARC: Christos Kotsogiannis, Director of TARC
10:30 - 11:00 Zareh Asatryan: Nudging for Tax Compliance: A Meta-Analysis
11:00 - 11:30 Lotta Björklund Larsen: Taxtech imaginaries: Outsourcing tax audits by introducing digitized information chains at the Swedish Tax Agency.
11:30 - 12:00 Emer Mulligan: Disruptive Technology in Tax Administration: A Socio-Technical Perspective.
12:00 - 12:30 Reyhaneh Safaei: Are Risk-based Tax Audit Strategies Rewarded? An Analysis of Corporate Tax Avoidance.
12:30 - 13:00  Mohammed Abdullahi Umar: Exploring the phenomenon of multiple taxation in a typical developing country.
13:00 - 13:45  Break 45 minutes (CHAT ROOM TIME)

 

Afternoon Session Day 2

6 papers each 20 minutes followed by Q&A
Panel discussion 1 hour
Plenary session 55 minutes

13:45 - 14:15 Arifin Rosid: Assessing the effectiveness of law enforcement in improving tax compliance: An empirical investigation.
14:15 - 14:45 Rosella Levaggi: Tax evasion and debt in a dynamic general equilibrium model.
14:45 - 15:15 Trifon Pavkov: Uncovering the tax elasticity using administrative data:Evidence from a comprehensive tax reform.
15:15 - 15:45 Jiao Li: The supply and demand of tax avoidance
15:45 - 16:45

PANEL DISCUSSION

Tax Administration & Policy
Developments in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa

Panel includes: Julian Jamison, UK; Nara Monkam, ATAF; Ezera Madzivanyika, ATAF; Maimbo Nyanga, IMF Zambia;  Mundia Kabinga, South Africa; Denis Mukama, Rwanda; and Christos Kotsogiannis, TARC (Chair)

16:45 - 17:15 Antoine Genest-Grégoire: Measuring tax evasion with lists: A Canadian experiment
17:15 - 17:35 Agung Darono, Aldi Pratama: Institutional logics in tax analytics: evidence from Indonesia.  
17:45 - 18:20

Plenary session: James Alm

Tax policy measures to combat the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and considerations to improve tax compliance: A behavioral perspective.

18:20 - 18:40 Plenary Q&A 

Morning Session Day 3

3 Papers each 20 minutes followed by Q&A
Plenary session 1 hour

10:15 - 10:30 Welcome to Day and introduction to TARC: Christos Kotsogiannis, Director of TARC
10:30 - 11:00 Luca Salvadori: Do Tax Audits Deter CIT Non-Compliance? Evidence from Administrative Data
11:00 - 11:30 Kristian A Prasetyo: The Distance between us - Social distance between taxpayersand tax officers in Indonesia: a preliminary evidence. 
11:30 - 12:00 Muhammad Ashfaq Ahmed: UN MTC Article 5: The Predatory Ploy - A Neo Marxist mapping of the permanent establishment.
12:00 - 12:35

Plenary session: Frantisek Imrecze

Digitalisation of tax administrations and mastering team engagement – key elements of success during crisis and beyond.

12:35 - 13:00  Plenary Q&A
13:00 - 13:45  Break 45 minutes (CHAT ROOM TIME)

 

Afternoon Session Day 3

7 papers each 20 minutes followed by Q&A

13:45 - 14:15 Jonathan Farrar: Tax fraud punishment, responsibility for tax fraud, and observers' tax compliance.
14:15 - 14:45

Precious Angelo Brenni: Shared Residential Occupancy and Property Tax Compliance

14:45 - 15:15 T.Qivi Hady Daholi; Andreas Rossi Dewantara: The road not taken: Unlocking the conundrums of transfer pricing dispute in Indonesia. 
15:15 - 15:45 Armenak Antinyan: Does frequency of nudging matter for tax compliance? An RCT in P.R. China.
15:45 - 16:15 Afternoon break
16:15 - 16:45

Maximilian Zieser: The future of tax audits?: The acceptance of online-based, automatic tax audits.

16:45 - 17:15

Najibullah Nor Isak; Abdinasir Abdullahi: Managing the Taxation of Informal Business Sector in Mogadishu‌

Conference Presentation

17:15 Conference Close

Previous conferences

Date Event Venue Keynote speakers
11-12 April 2019 7th annual TARC conference University of Exeter Business School Rick Krever, Christian Traxler, Sven Steinmo and Valerie Braithwaite
23-24 April 2018

6th annual TARC conference

University of Exeter Business School Brian Erard 
25-27 April 2017 5th annual TARC conference University of Exeter Business School Erich Kirchler and Helmut Cremer
21-22 April 2016 4th annual TARC conference University of Exeter Business School James Alm and Nina Olson
20-21 April 2015 3rd annual TARC conference University of Exeter Business School Leonard Burman and Jeffrey Owens 
10-11 March 2014 2nd annual TARC conference University of Exeter Business School Joel Slemrod 
28-29 January 2013 Inaugural TARC conference University of Exeter Business School  Mick Keen