Paulína Jalakšová, Richard Priesol, Institute of Financial Policy, Slovak Republic
Berenika Tužilová, Institute of Financial Policy, Slovak Republic; Faculty of Economics Prague University of Economics and Business, Czech Republic
Petra Mojžisová, Financial Administration of the Slovak Republic

Type of article: scientific article
Pages: 3 – 14

Abstract

This paper studies whether notification letters from the Slovak Tax Administration reduce duplicate claims for the child tax credit, which arise when taxpayers double-claim through employers and tax returns or when two taxpayers claim for the same child. A two-round field experiment tested the effectiveness of the letters. In round one, a baseline letter increased error correction rates by 36-37 percentage points compared to no letter. In round two, more assertive wording performed best, raising compliance by 11-15 percentage points relative to the baseline letter. The findings suggest that simple communication changes can substantially improve tax compliance and are a scalable tool for public institutions.