Self-employment: Influence of tax incentives and income underreporting

Abstract

The aim of the article is to answer the question whether the tax benefits that can be obtained by the self-employed in Poland influence the decision to start their own business. In the study, the EUROMOD microsimulation model is used to determine tax benefits from self-employment. The estimated tax benefits are then used in a probit regression to explain the probability of self-employment. The survey is carried out for both original EU-SILC data and adjusted data, assuming that the income reported by the self-employed is underreported. The results of the survey based on the original data indicate that taxpayers make irrational decisions about taking up self-employment. This is because as the benefits of self-employment increase, the probability of self-employment decreases. After ad-justing the data on self-employed income with the underreported income, the results of the analysis lead to the opposite conclusion.