No. 153: The Downsides of Democracy? The Case of Tax Complexity

Abstract

This study investigates the association between the political characteristics of countries and the complexity of the legal system. We use country-level measures of tax complexity, democracy indicators, and election results data and find that the degree of democracy is associated with higher overall complexity of tax systems. This association is driven by the complexity of tax regulations. Contrastingly, we document negative associations with the complexity of tax procedures such as tax filings or tax audits. Moreover, we find the association between democracy and tax system complexity to be inversely U-shaped, indicating strong autocracies and strong democracies to reduce overall tax complexity. In further analyses, we document that the complexity of anti-tax avoidance regulations increases with higher levels of democracy and demonstrate that left-wing governed countries are more prone to experience an increase in complexity through democracy than right-wing governed countries.