Assessment of fiscal effort and voluntary tax compliance in Peru.

Abstract

This study examines the fiscal effort and voluntary compliance in the payment of taxes in Peru. It determines that in 2014, the Peruvian economy collected only 52.8% of its total tax potential. Then trough an experiment, it is shown that dissuasive policies only do not explain the whole phenomenon of tax compliance; on the contrary, some psychological factors, named by the literature as “Tax Morale”, should be considered in such a study. Thus, if Peru expects to join the OECD (it being a goal for celebrating the bicentennial of its independence), it must improve tax compliance to standards equal to those of more developed countries and some non-dissuasive and low-cost public policies designed on tax-morale research may help to achieve this goal.