Income Tax Evasion Revisited: The Impact of Interest Rate Yields on Tax-Free Municipal Bonds‪.‬

1. Introduction Income tax evasion remains a timely issue, as evidenced by recently published studies (e.g., see Feige 1989, 1994; Alm, Jackson, and McKee 1992; Pestieau, Possen, and Slutsky 1994; Cebula 1997, 2001; Alm, McClelland, and Schulze 1999; Atkins 1999; Panteghini 2000; Ali, Cecil, and Knoblett 2001; Saltz 2001). In an effort to provide further insight into the determinants of tax evasion, this study hypothesizes that the tax-evasion decision may include an assessment of the tax-free interest rate yield on, say, high-grade municipal bonds relative to the taxable interest rate yield on alternative high-quality bond issues, such as 10-year Treasury notes. Presumably, the higher the interest rate yield on high-grade municipals (whose interest is legally exempt from federal income taxation) relative to the taxable interest rate yield on 10-year Treasury notes, the more attractive those municipals become, ceteris paribus. In effect, the interest paid on tax-free bonds, especially for households in higher tax brackets, may offer an attractive legal alternative (income tax avoidance) to illegal income tax evasion. (1) Thus, it is hypothesized that the higher the tax-free interest rate yield on high-grade municipals relative to the taxable yield on 10-year Treasury notes (or equivalent taxable issues), the less the incentive for and, hence, the less the degree of income tax evasion.