Can tax evasion be reduced by fostering cashless payments? A systematic literature review
G. Spinelli et al.
What the paper says
Tax evasion is a crucial issue worldwide.It is facilitated by the cash economy, as cash is untraceable and allows individuals to easily conceal the history of transactions, thus facilitating underreporting.On the contrary, cashless payments are traceable, which makes evasion more difficult.Despite rising interest by policymakers, the literature on the impact of payment instruments on tax evasion is still scarce and fragmented.The present paper, therefore, presents a systematic literature review on the topic.More specifically, we analyze 26 papers published in peer-reviewed journals, documenting that cash has a positive impact on tax evasion and the shadow economy, whereas card payments foster Value Added Tax compliance.Other topics, such as the impact of digital wallets and Central Bank Digital Currencies on tax evasion, prove to be rather neglected.Finally, we discuss which policies can be introduced by policymakers to reduce tax evasion and we provide suggestions for future research.
2 citations
Evidence weight
Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40
| F · citation impact | 0.49 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
| M · momentum | 0.55 × 0.15 = 0.08 |
| V · venue signal | 0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03 |
| R · text relevance † | 0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20 |
† Text relevance is estimated at 0.50 on the detail page — for your query’s actual relevance score, open this paper from a search result.