Attracting Nonfilers through Amnesty Programs: Internal versus External Motivation

We investigate a subset of nonfilers by analyzing data provided by the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration (DFA) from the 1997 Arkansas State Tax Penalty Amnesty. Our data sources include the tax returns filed by amnesty participants, a voluntary, confidential survey completed by approximately 32 percent of amnesty filers, and a list of amnesty participants who received a notice from DFA under the FedState data-sharing program during the amnesty period. We divide our sample into three groups based on motivation for participating in the amnesty program. The first group consists of taxpayers who did not receive a notification from the DFA under the FedState data-sharing program and chose independently to participate in the amnesty. This group is designated as internally motivated. A second group of taxpayers, labeled as externally motivated, received a DFA letter, and their survey responses indicate that they would not have known otherwise that they were noncompliant. The third group received a letter and were aware of their failure to file Arkansas returns. The motivations of this group are mixed. Using both univariate tests and multinomial logistic regression, we compare these three groups on four dimensions: tax return information, demographic information, excuses for failure to file, and reasons for voluntarily coming forward during the amnesty period. We find that the groups are different on several dimensions, most notably income level and excuses offered for failure to file a return when due.