APRIL 15 SYNDROME |
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| Authors: | JOEL SLEMROD CHARLES CHRISTIAN REBECCA LONDON JONATHAN A PARKER |
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| Institution: | The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Phone 1–313-936-3914, Fax 1–313-763-4032, E-mail;Arizona State University Tempe, Phone 1–602-965-6632, Fax 1–602-965-8392, E-mail;Berkeley Planning Associates Oakland, Calif., Phone 1–510-465-7884, Fax 1–510-465-7885, E-mail;Society of Scholars Fellow, University of Michigan Business School, Ann Arbor, Phone 1–313-763-2237, Fax 1–313-936-8716, E-mail |
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| Abstract: | In tax year 1988, delaying filing income tax returns cost the 73.2 million taxpayers claiming refunds nearly one billion dollars of interest. "Impatient" tax filers, who mail in their tax payments before the filing deadline, passed up $46 million in interest.
We develop a model of tax filing based on stochastic opportunity cost, and then investigate whether filing times are consistent with that model. We find some evidence for this because, ceteris paribus, higher refunds are associated with earlier filing and complex returns are associated with later filing, as are higher incomes (as a proxy for higher costs of time). |
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