Abstract This study examines the impact of sanction communications on taxpayer compliance. Deterrence theory suggests the Importance of both legal sanctions and informal sanctions such as fear of social stigma, in obtaining compliance. A laboratory experiment was designed to test the compliance impact of communicating existing legal sanctions and potential informal sanctions. The experiment provides evidence that communicating existing legal sanctions may increase compliance. However, the communication of potential informal sanctions did not lead to significant compliance improvement.
George R. Violette (Fri,) studied this question.