My Taxes Are Too Darn High: Why Do Households Protest Their Taxes?

137 Pages Posted: 2 Nov 2020 Last revised: 3 Jul 2023

See all articles by Brad Nathan

Brad Nathan

Rutgers Business School - Rutgers University

Ricardo Perez-Truglia

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Alejandro Zentner

The University of Texas at Dallas - Naveen Jindal School of Management

Multiple version iconThere are 2 versions of this paper

Date Written: September 12, 2020

Abstract

In the United States and many other countries, taxpayers can file a protest to legally reduce their property taxes. While tax protests can provide a unique opportunity to study the (un)willingness to pay taxes, they have received little attention from researchers. To fill that gap, we study what motivates households to protest their property taxes. Using a field experiment and a quasi-experiment, we show that both expected savings and filing frictions play significant roles. We estimate the magnitude of filing frictions using a money metric. We also discuss how low-cost interventions targeted at disadvantaged groups can mitigate existing economic and racial disparities in the system of tax appeals.

Keywords: taxes, protest, appeal

JEL Classification: C93, H26, K34, K42, Z13

Suggested Citation

Nathan, Brad and Perez-Truglia, Ricardo and Zentner, Alejandro, My Taxes Are Too Darn High: Why Do Households Protest Their Taxes? (September 12, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3691361 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3691361

Brad Nathan

Rutgers Business School - Rutgers University ( email )

Ricardo Perez-Truglia (Contact Author)

University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) ( email )

405 Hilgard Avenue
Box 951361
Los Angeles, CA 90095
United States

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
United States

Alejandro Zentner

The University of Texas at Dallas - Naveen Jindal School of Management ( email )

P.O. Box 830688
Richardson, TX 75083-0688
United States

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