Tax law enforcement has been an ongoing problem since the inception of taxation. Over the last few years, the Tax Reform Act of 1986 has addressed the issue, several states have embarked on ambitious tax enforcement programs, and the taxation missions of the World Bank to developing countries have become more cognizant of taxation problems. The academic community has recently devoted its attention to the problem of compliance, and researchers from several different disciplines have addressed both conceptual and empirical issues. Because rigorous and sophisticated research in this area is relatively new and approaches to the problem are so varied, there is a need to provide exchange of ideas and direction to those who are wrestling with these analytic and methodological problems. Dr. Slemrod is convening an international and interdisciplinary conference to address critical issues in the deterrent effect of tax law enforcement. Papers will be presented in a two-day meeting in the spring of 1990 at the University of Michigan. Scholars from economics, law, accounting, statistics, psychology, political science, sociology, and various other social science disciplines will participate along with those interested in the problem from a policy perspective. A central focus of the conference is on the empirical measurement of the general deterrent effect. Such issues will be examined as statistical methods for dealing with the limitations of cross-sectional and time-series data, experimental analyses of the deterrent effect, opportunities for new data sources and techniques, attributes of tax evaders and its relevance for the deterrent effect, and the impact of state amnesty programs. Also central to the conference is the conceptual role of the deterrent effect in optimal tax enforcement policy. Such issues will be considered as the rule that characterizes the optimal size of the tax collection agency; the optimal policy (e.g., audit policy) for a given amount of resource; and the tradeoffs between the deterrence role of tax enforcement and its other objectives, such as equity. Because of the intrinsic importance to policies of the Internal Revenue Service, the conference is jointly supported by that agency and by the National Science Foundation. The conference will contribute to progress in this area in important ways. Because parallel and complementary research is proceeding in different places (including different countries) and from different disciplines, a sharing of information and insights will improve the quality of future research. It will also be valuable to have empirical researchers participate in panels devoted to theory or policy analysis, and conversely to expose theorists to the issues arising in empirical analyses. The conference will allow the development of a conceptual framework for ongoing empirical research on tax compliance which will have far reaching significance not only for the public purse but also for understanding compliance with law in general.
