Download or read book An Economic Analysis of Tax Amnesties written by International Monetary Fund and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 1989-05-11 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tax amnesties have frequently been justified as politically popular ways to generate increases in government revenue. This paper examines the circumstances under which amnesties are likely to have a beneficial impact on revenue collections. It concludes that, while in general it may be correct to impose a reduced penalty on individuals who voluntarily disclose tax evasion, short-lived amnesties of the type most frequently observed in practice are unlikely to generate significant revenue when judged against the potential danger of reducing future tax compliance.