Can Governments Increase Revenues By Lowering Taxes? A Study of Competing Policies To Reduce Tax Evasion During House Purchase in India

In the specific context of India, this project studies which of the two tools – the stamp duty or the guidance value – leads to higher truthful reporting of property prices. Using a hedonic model developed from appraisal reports on residential properties, it builds an under-reporting metric which captures the degree of under-reporting at various regimes of stamp duty decreases and guidance rate increases using an even study approach. It further analyses the unintended consequences of guidance value as an assessment value for presumptive taxation and whether it is inflationary.

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