Taxes without Taxpayers: The Invisibility of Taxes in Chile

Contenido principal del artículo

Andrés Biehl
José Tomás Labarca
Jacinta Vela

Resumen

This study documents the existing gap between tax structure and tax visibility using evidence from a nationally representative survey in Chile around the time of a contentious tax reform bill. Debates over taxation often assume that taxpayers know the scale and reach of their tax obligations and the benefits associated to paying taxes, which are crucial to the success of taxation as a tool for development. We tested the assumption of a well-informed taxpayer and find generalised opacity along with the stratification of both income and value-added taxes visibility. We end by discussing how tax visibility relates to taxpayers’ expectations of tax morality and redistribution.

[We thank the Instituto de Políticas Públicas of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, in particular to Ignacio Irarrázaval and Francisca Alessandri, for access to the data set and comments during the seminar “Encuesta Bicentenario: Una radiografía al alma de Chile,” in January 2015. We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers and the editor of Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales for their helpful comments, and Germán Vera Concha and Jorge Atria for the lengthy discussions on these issues. The usual disclaimer applies.]

 

Descargas

Los datos de descargas todavía no están disponibles.

Detalles del artículo

Cómo citar
Biehl, A., Labarca, J. T., & Vela, J. (2019). Taxes without Taxpayers: The Invisibility of Taxes in Chile. Revista Mexicana De Ciencias Políticas Y Sociales, 64(236). https://doi.org/10.22201/fcpys.2448492xe.2019.236.62883
Biografía del autor/a

Andrés Biehl, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. E-mail: <atbiehl@uc.cl>. We thank the Instituto de Políticas Públicas of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, in particular to Ignacio Irarrázaval and Francisca Alessandri, for access to the data set and comments during the seminar “Encuesta Bicentenario: Una radiografía al alma de Chile,” in January 2015. We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers and the editor of Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales for their helpful comments, and Germán Vera Concha and Jorge Atria for the lengthy discussions on these issues. The usual disclaimer applies

Andrés Biehl is assistant professor of Sociology at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile –where he trained as a sociologist– and is an adjunct researcher at the Millennium Nucleus for the Study of the Life Course and Vulnerability (MLIV), supported by the Chilean Ministry of Economy, Development and Tourism. He completed an MSc and a DPhil in Sociology at Oxford University. His interests lie in fiscal sociology, economic sociology, and comparative development and is currently researching the connection between taxation and labor markets from a historical and sociological perspective.

José Tomás Labarca, University of Edinburgh. E-mail: <jtlabarca@ed.ac.uk>.

José Tomás Labarca holds a bachelor in history and a master in sociology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Currently, he is a PhD student in Sociology at the School of Social and Political Science in the University of Edinburgh. His research interests relate to historical/comparative sociology, economic sociology, political sociology, sovereign debt, and taxation. His work has been published in journals such as Latin American Research Review, Revista Mexicana de Sociología, and European Review of Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

Jacinta Vela, E-mail: <jacintavela@gmail.com>.

Jacinta Vela holds a BA in Sociology from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and an MPhil in Sociology from Oxford University. She is a full time researcher in the public sector. Her research focuses mainly on measurement of education quality, the association between social stratification and education, and social research methods.

Citas

AdimarkGfk (2015) Evaluación gestión del Gobierno [on line]. Available at: http://www.adimark.cl/es/estudios/documentos/16_eval gobierno jun_2015.pdf.

Atria, Jorge (2014) "Tributación y desigualdad en Chile: características y perspectivas" in Atria, Jorge (ed.) Tributación en sociedad. Santiago, Chile: Uqbar Editores, pp. 115-–142.

Atria, Jorge; Groll, Constantin and María Fernanda Valdés (eds.) (2018) Rethinking Taxation in Latin America: Reform and Challenges in Times of Uncertainty. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.

Bachelet, Michelle (2013) Chile de Todos: Programa de Gobierno de Michelle Bachelet, 2014-2018. Santiago: Gobierno de Chile [on line]. Available at: http://www.gob.cl/programa-de-gobierno/.

Bachelet, Michelle (2014) Discurso de S.E. La Presidenta de la República, Michelle Bachelet, al promulgar Reforma Tributaria. Santiago: Gobierno de Chile [on line]. Available at: https://prensa.presidencia.cl/discurso.aspx?id=8220.

Beramendi, Pablo and David Rueda (2007) “Social Democracy Constrained: Indirect Taxation in Industrialized Democracies” British Journal of Political Science, 37(4): 619-641.

Bergman, Marcelo (2003) "Tax Reforms and Tax Compliance: The Divergent Paths of Chile and Argentina" Journal of Latin American Studies, 35 (3): 593-624.

Bergman, Marcelo (2009) Tax Evasion and the Rule of Law in Latin America: The Political Culture of Cheating and Compliance in Argentina and Chile. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press.

Beyer, Harald (2014) "Sobre impuestos, desigualdad y reforma tributaria" Puntos de Referencia, (368) [on line]. Available at: https://www.cepchile.cl/cep/site/artic/20160304/asocfile/20160304100551/pder368_HBeyer.pdf.

Biehl, Andrés and José Tomás Labarca (2018) "Global Uncertainty in the Evolution of Latin American Income Taxes" in Atria, Jorge; Groll, Constantin and María Fernanda Valdés (eds.) Rethinking Taxation in Latin America: Reform and Challenges in Times of Uncertainty. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 89-122.

biobiochile.cl (2014) "Continúa polémica votación de reforma tributaria en la Cámara de Diputados" [on line]. May 13. Available at: https://www.biobiochile.cl/noticias/2014/05/13/continua-polemica-votacion-por-reforma-tributaria-tras-mas-de-7-horas-en-la-camara-de-diputados.shtml.

Bird, Richard M. and Pierre-Pascal Gendron (2007) The VAT in Developing and Transitional Countries. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Bird, Richard M. and Eric M. Zolt (2013) "Taxation and Inequality in the Americas: Changing the Fiscal Contract?" International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, (50) [on line]. Available at: http://scholarworks.gsu.edu/icepp/50.

Boylan, Delia M. (1996) "Taxation and Transition: The Politics of the 1990 Chilean Tax Reform" Latin American Research Review, 31(1): 7-31.

Bräutigam, Deborah (2008) "Introduction: Taxation and State-Building in Developing Countries" in Bräutigam, Deborah; Odd-Helge, Fjeldstad and Mick Moore (eds.) Taxation and State-Building in Developing Countries: Capacity and Consent. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-33.

Campbell, Andrea L. (2009) "What Americans Think of Taxes" in Martin, Isaac W.; Mehrotra, Ajay K. and Monica Prasad (eds.) The New Fiscal Sociology: Taxation in Comparative and Historical Perspective. New York: Cambridge University Press, pp. 48-67.

Campbell, John L. (1993) "The State and Fiscal Sociology" Annual Review of Sociology, (19): 163-185.

Campbell, John L. (2004) Institutional Change and Globalization. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Carnes, Matthew and Isabela Mares (2013) "Coalitional realignment and the adoption of non-contributory social insurance programmes in Latin America" Socio-Economic Review, 12(4): 695-722.

Centeno, Miguel Angel (2002) Blood and Debt: War and the Nation-State in Latin America. Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania State University Press.

CEP (2015) "Estudio nacional de opinión pública" Centro de Estudios Públicos [on line]. Available at: http://www.cepchile.cl/estudio-nacional-de-opinion-publica-abril-2015/cep/2016-03-04/101227.html.

Cetrángolo, Oscar and Juan Carlos Gómez Sabaini (2010) "Tax Policy in Argentina: Between Solvency and Emergency" in Gordon, Roger (ed.) Taxation in Developing Countries: Six Case Studies and Policy Implications. New York: Columbia University Press, pp. 62-108.

Chan, Tak W. and John H. Goldthorpe (2007) "Class and Status: The Conceptual Distinction and its Empirical Relevance" American Sociological Review, 72(4): 512-532.

Comisión Asesora Presidencial sobre el Sistema de Pensiones (2015) Informe Final. Santiago de Chile [on line]. Available at: http://www.comision-pensiones.cl/Informe_final_CP_2015.pdf.

Douglass, Mary (1994) Risk and Blame: Essays in Cultural Theory. London: Routledge.

Durand, Francisco and Rosemary Thorp (1998) "Reforming the State: A Study of the Peruvian Tax Reform" Oxford Development Studies, 26(2): 133-151.

Eaton, Kent (2001) "Decentralisation, Democratisation and Liberalisation: The History of Revenue Sharing in Argentina, 1934-1999" Journal of Latin American Studies, (33): 1-28.

El Mercurio Online (2008) "Gobierno critica paro de camioneros y lo califica de ‘injusto.’" [on line] June 3. Available at: http://www.emol.com/noticias/nacional/2008/06/03/306971/gobierno-critica-paro-de-camioneros-y-lo-califica-de-injusto.html.

El Mercurio Online (2014) "Diputado UDI e impuesto a combustibles: ‘Creemos que al gobierno este tema no le interesa’” [on line]. November 2. Available at: http://www.emol.com/noticias/nacional/2014/11/02/688016/diputado-udi-e-impuesto-a-combustibles-creemos-que-al-gobierno-este-tema-no-le-interesa.html.

Encuesta Nacional Bicentenario (2014) Santiago: Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile y Adimark GFK [on line]. Available at: https://encuestabicentenario.uc.cl.

Engel, Eduardo; Galetovic, Alexander and Claudio E. Raddatz (1999) "Taxes and Income Distribution in Chile: Some Unpleasant Redistributive Arithmetic" Journal of Development Economics, 59(1): 155-192.

Fairfield, Tasha (2010) "Business Power and Tax Reform: Taxing Income and Profits in Chile and Argentina" Latin American Politics and Society, 52(2): 37-71.

Fairfield, Tasha and Michel Jorrat (2014) "Top Income Shares, Business Profits and Effective Tax Rates in Contemporary Chile" ICTD Working Paper 17.

Haggard, Stephen and Robert R. Kaufman (2008) Development, Democracy, and Welfare States: Latin America, East Asia, and Eastern Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Harberger, Arnold C. (1989) "Lessons of Tax Reform from the Experiences of Uruguay, Indonesia, and Chile" in Gilles, Malcolm (ed.) Tax Reform in Developing Countries. Durham and London: Duke University Press, pp. 27-43.

IMF (2013) Regional Economic Outlook: Western Hemisphere. Washington DC: International Monetary Fund.

INE (2009) Enfoque estadístico: ¿Cómo distribuyen el tiempo hombres y mujeres? Mexico: Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas [on line]. Available at: http://www.ine.cl/canales/chile_estadistico/estadisticas_sociales_culturales/encuesta_tiempo_libre/pdf/enfoque_eut_pag.pdf.

INE (2016) Actualización población 2002-2012 y proyección 2013-2020. Mexico: Instituto Nacional de Estadísticas [on line]. Available at: http://www.ine.cl/canales/chile_estadistico/familias/demograficas_vitales.php.

Jelvez, Mauricio (2014) "La reforma tributaria y los desafíos de la equidad y de la sostenibilidad del crecimiento económico" Asuntos Públicos [on line]. April 21. Available at: http://www.asuntospublicos.cl/2014/04/la-reforma-tributaria-y-los-desafios-de-la-equidad-y-de-la-sostenibilidad-del-crecimiento-economico/.

Jiménez, Juan Pablo (ed.) (2015) Desigualdad, concentración del ingreso y tributación sobre las altas rentas en América Latina. Santiago, Chile: CEPAL.

Kato, Junko (2003) Regressive Taxation and The Welfare State: Path Dependency and Policy Diffusion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Labarca, José Tomás (2016) "El 'ciclo corto' del movimiento estudiantil chileno: ¿conflicto sectorial o cuestionamiento sistémico" Revista Mexicana de Sociología, 78(4): 605-632.

Larraín, Luis (2014) "La clase media y las reformas de Bachelet" El Mercurio [on line]. May 10. Available at: http://www.elmercurio.com/blogs/2014/05/10/21723/La-clase-media-y-las-reformas-de-Bachelet.aspx

La Segunda online (2014) "Comenzó el debate de polémica reforma tributaria en la Cámara de Diputados" [on line]. May 13. Available at: http://www.lasegunda.com/Noticias/Politica/2014/05/934495/Hoy-se-inicia-debate-de-polemica-reforma-tributaria-en-la-Camara-de-Diputados.

La Tercera Online (2014) "La reforma tributaria: el proyecto y el debate" [on line]. Available at: http://www.lasegunda.com/Noticias/Politica/2014/05/934495/Hoy-se-inicia-debate-de-polemica-reforma-tributaria-en-la-Camara-de-Diputados.

Leroy, Marc (2008) "Tax Sociology" Socio-logos, (3) [on line]. Available at: http://socio-logos.revues.org/2073.

Levi, Margaret (1989) Of Rule and Revenue. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Lewis, Colin and Andrew H. Mitchell (2008) "Fiscal Credibility, Public Good and the Budget" in Sánchez-Ancochea, Diego and Iwan Morgan (eds.) The Political Economy of the Public Budget in The Americas. London: Institute for the Study of the Americas, pp. 33-59.

Lieberman, Evan S. (2003) Race and Regionalism in the Politics of Taxation in Brazil and South Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Libertad y Desarrollo (2014a) "Nuevo proyecto de reforma tributaria: menos malo pero aún dañino" [on line]. July 15. Available at: https://lyd.org/centro-de-prensa/noticias/2014/07/nuevo-proyecto-de-reforma-tributaria-menos-malo-pero-aun-danino-2/.

Libertad y Desarrollo (2014b) “Reforma tributaria y proyectos educacionales: Urge más trasparencia” [on line]. July 18. Available at: https://lyd.org/centro-de-prensa/noticias/2014/07/reforma-tributaria-y-proyectos-educacionales-urge-mas-transparencia-3/.

Llacer, Toni (2014) "Resentimiento fiscal: una propuesta de mecanismo explicativo de la relación entre la edad y la moral fiscal" Revista Internacional de Sociología, 72(1): 35-36.

Lustig, Nora; Amábile, Florencia; Bucheli, Marisa; Gray, George; Higgins, Sean; Jaramillo, Miguel; Jiménez, Wilson; Paz, Verónica; Pereira, Claudiney; Rossy, Máximo; Scott, John and Ernesto Yáñez (2013) "The impact of Taxes and Social Spending on Inequality and Poverty in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay: An Overview" Tulane Economics Working Paper Series.

Mahon, James E. (2004) "Causes of Tax Reform in Latin America, 1977-95" Latin American Research Review, 39(1): 3-30.

Marshall, Enrique L. (1939) "El impuesto a la renta en Chile" Anales de la Facultad de Ciencias Jurídicas y Sociales, (5): 17-20.

Martin, Isaac W.; Mehrotra, Ajay K. and Monica Prasad (2009) "The Thunder of History" in Martin, Isaac W.; Mehrotra, Ajay K. and Monica Prasad (eds.) The New Fiscal Sociology: Taxation in Comparative and Historical Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1-27.

Martin, Isaac W. and Monica Prasad (2014) "Taxes and Fiscal Sociology" Annual Review of Sociology, (40): 331-345.

Martner, Gonzalo (2014) "Desigualdad y tributos en Chile" Economía Exterior (70) [on line]. Available at: http://www.politicaexterior.com/articulos/economia-exterior/desigualdad-y-tributos-en-chile/.

McCaffery, Edward (2009) "Where’s the Sex in Fiscal Sociology? Taxation and Gender in Comparative Perspective" in Martin, Isaac W.; Mehrotra, Ajay K. and Monica Prasad (eds.) The New Fiscal Sociology: Taxation in Comparative and Historical Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 216-236.

Moore, Mick (2008) "Between Coercion and Contract" in Bräutigam, Deborah; Odd-Helge, Fjeldstad and Mick Moore (eds.) Taxation and State-Building in Developing Countries: Capacity and Consent. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 34-63.

Ondetti, Gabriel (2017) "The Power of Preferences: Economic Elites and Light Taxation in Mexico" Revista Mexicana de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales, 62(231): 47-76.

Portes, Alejandro and Lori D. Smith (2010) "Institutions and National Development in Latin America: A Comparative Study" Socio-Economic Review, (8): 585-621.

Rivera, Eugenio (2014) "Economía y política de la reforma tributaria de Bachelet" Chile 21: Colección Ideas, 15 (154) [on line]. Available at: http://www.chile21.cl/19171/.

Ross, Michael L. (2004) "Does Taxation Lead to Representation?" British Journal of Political Science, 34(2): 229-249.

Sánchez, Omar (2011) Mobilizing Resources in Latin America: The Political Economy of Tax Reform in Chile and Argentina. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Sánchez Román, José Antonio (2012) Taxation and Society in Twentieth-Century Argentina. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Scheve, Kenneth and David Stasavage (2016) Taxing the Rich: A History of Fiscal Fairness in the United States and Europe. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Sehnbruch, Kirsten (2006) The Chilean Labor Market: A Key to Understanding Latin American Labor Markets. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Serrano, Sol; Ponce de León, Macarena and Francisca Rengifo (2012) Historia de la educación en Chile (1810-2010), t. I. Santiago: Taurus.

SII (2016) Número de contribuyentes y montos por impuestos personales consolidados. Santiago de Chile: Servicio de Impuestos Internos [on line]. Available at: http://www.sii.cl/estadisticas/contribuyentes/impuestos_personales.htm.

Somma, Nicolás (2012) "The Chilean Student Movement of 2011-2012: Challenging the Marketization of Education" Interface: A Journal For and About Social Movements, 4(2): 296-309.

Steinmo, Sven (1993) Taxation and Democracy. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Steinmo, Sven and Marcelo Bergman (2018) "Taxation and Consent: Implications for Developing Nations" in Steinmo, Sven (ed) The Leap of Faith: The Fiscal Foundations of Successful Government in Europe and America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 273-292.

Tilly, Charles (2009) "Extraction and Democracy" in Martin, Isaac W.; Mehrotra, Ajay K. and Monica Prasad (eds.) The New Fiscal Sociology: Taxation in Comparative and Historical Perspective. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 173-182.

Torgler, Benno (2005) "Tax Morale in Latin America" Public Choice (122): 133-157.

Transparency International (2016) Corruption Perceptions Index 2015 [on line]. Available at: https://www.transparency.org/cpi2015.

Vidal, Francisco (2011) "TÉNGASE PRESENTE: Sistema tributario de Chile y el mundo, comparaciones odiosas" Chile 21 [on line]. Available at: http://www.chile21.cl/8176/.

Wilensky, Harold L. (2002) Rich Democracies: Political Economy, Public Policy, and Performance. Berkeley: University of California Press.

World Bank (2014) Doing Business Project, Doing Business: Employing Workers [on line]. Available at: http://www.doingbusiness.org/data/exploretopics/employing-workers#firingCost.

World Bank (2018a) World Development Indicators [on line]. Available at: http://data.worldbank.org.

World Bank (2018b) Doing Business Project, Doing Business: Reforming to Create Jobs [on line]. Available at: http://russian.doingbusiness.org/~/media/WBG/DoingBusiness/Documents/Annual-Reports/English/DB2018-Full-Report.pdf.

Wormald, Guillermo and Ana Cárdenas (2014) "Formación y desarrollo del Servicio de Impuestos Internos en Chile" in Atria, Jorge (ed.) Tributación en sociedad. Santiago de Chile: Uqbar Editores, pp. 81-114.