The Korea Local Administration Review

Little attention has been paid to the taxpayer’s behavioral response when reviewing the quality of assessed value or monitoring tax compliance: one of the typical response is adjusting price or income when the taxpayer files a tax return. Gyunggi Province was chosen for the analysis, and the taxpayer's price reported for the purpose of property acquisition tax was investigated. The results indicated that the bunching was observed in most property types except the non-residential property, and the location of the bunching point was around 1.0, which is the ratio of reported price over assessed value. The degree of the bunching mass was higher for vehicles and houses than for lands. It is interpreted that the varying levels of the bunching mass for different property types have derived from the adjustment cost related to the behavioral response, and the cost includes the detection probability through a tax audit and the taxpayer’s accessibility to assessed value.