The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center invite you to attend the only annual conference focused on tax administration research. Researchers from the IRS, other government agencies, academia, and private organizations will discuss some of the latest analyses seeking to make tax administration as effective as possible.

8:30 AM | Opening Remarks

• Robert McClelland, Senior Fellow, Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center

• Reza Rashidi, Chief Data and Analytics Officer, Research, Applied Analytics, and Statistics, Internal Revenue Service

   

8:45 AM | Session 1: Help Me Help You: Nudging Taxpayers Into Compliance

• Does Taxpayer Assistance Encourage Income Tax Compliance? Evidence From IRS Staffing
  Presenter: Vishal Baloria, Associate Professor of Accounting, University of Connecticut
• Tracing the Invisible: Tax and Criminal Investigations of Digital Assets in Brazil and the Emergence of a New Asset-Tracing Architecture
  Presenter: Ali Ekmen, Former Chief Tax Inspector, Turkish Tax Inspection Board; MSc Taxation Candidate, University of Oxford
• Discussant: Michael Udell, Economist, Research, Applied Analytics, and Statistics, Internal Revenue Service

• Moderator: Masanue Vah, Social Scientist, Internal Revenue Service

   

10:15 AM | Break

10:35 AM | Session 2: From Good to Great: Getting the Most Out of Audits

• A New Approach to Dealing With Imperfect Detection Tax Return Audits: Leave One Out Estimator Income and Self-Employment Tax  
  Presenter: Alex Turk, Supervisory Economist, Research, Applied Analytics, and Statistics, Internal Revenue Service
• Refresh Rate Matters: Monthly Retraining Improves Audit-Selection Under Concept Drift
  Presenter: Brandon Anderson, Technical Advisor, Internal Revenue Service
• Rethinking Post-Audit Compliance Heterogenous and Persistent Effects in Experimental Data
  Presenter: Carlos Scartascini, Principal Technical Leader, Research Department, Inter-American Development Bank, Leader of Research Department, Behavioral Economics Group
• Discussant: Brian Erard, Principal, B. Erard and Associates, LLC
• Moderator: Valentina Kachanovskaya, Economist, Research, Applied Analytics, and Statistics, Internal Revenue Service

12:05 PM | Lunch

12:35 PM | Keynote

• Janet Holtzblatt, Senior Fellow, Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center 

1:05 PM | Break

1:20 PM | Session 3: Indirect Impacts of Enforcement Over Time

• Experimental Evidence on the Specific Indirect Effects of Audits
  Presenter: Justin Nave, Project Lead, MITRE
• Long-Distance Deterrence Spillovers from High-Intensity Tax Enforcement: Social Network Evidence from the 2015 New York City Zapper Crackdown
  Presenter: Zizhuo Chen, PhD Student, Department of Applied Economics, University of Minnesota Twin Cities
• The Specific Indirect Effect of IRS's Automated Underreporting (AUR) Enforcement
  Presenter: Thomas Hertz, Economist, Research, Applied Analytics, and Statistics, Internal Revenue Service
• Discussant: William Boning, Financial Economist, Office of Tax Analysis, US Department of the Treasury
• Moderator: Lori Stuntz, Senior Economist, Research, Applied Analytics, and Statistics, Internal Revenue Service

2:45 PM | Break

3:00 PM | Session 4: Making Third-Party Data Work Harder

• Unpacking Box 12: Imputing Deferred Compensation Categories on Population-Level Form W-2 Data Using SOI Transcription and Machine Learning
  Presenter: Rachel Geiger, Economist, Internal Revenue Service
• Wage Misreporting on Individual Income Tax Returns: Evidence from W-2 Mismatches
  Presenter: Lucas Goodman, Economist, Office of Tax Analysis, US Department of the Treasury
• Out of Sight, Out of Tax: Strategic Payment Routing and the Limits of Third-Party Reporting
  Presenter: Riddha Basu, Assistant Professor of Accountancy, George Washington University School of Business
• Discussant: Jamie McGuire, Senior Economist, Joint Committee on Taxation

• Moderator: Biz Bedane, Economist, Research, Applied Analytics, and Statistics, Internal Revenue Service

   

4:30 PM | Closing Remarks

• Reza Rashidi, Chief Data and Analytics Officer, Research, Applied Analytics, and Statistics, Internal Revenue Service

   

We strive to host inclusive, accessible events that enable all individuals to engage fully. Please email [email protected] if you require any accommodations or have any questions about this event.

This program was organized in partnership with the IRS Office of Research, Applied Analytics, and Statistics.