The objective of this paper is to explain as the behavior of the taxpayer determines the level of personal income tax evasion in Brazil, through an expansion of the Allingham e Sandmo’s model (1972), where we incorporate the specific characteristics of the Brazilian tax law enforcement system, to supply subsidies to the Brazilian tax authority in the design of tax audit rules. The results indicate that increases in the probabilities of tax audit, in the penalties, in the marginal tax and in the efficiency of the internal tax audit reduces the evasion of the personal income tax. Moreover, it was evident that it has differences of behavior between Regions, demonstrating that distinct groups of taxpayers evaluate of different form the risks of the tax evasion, seeming to know the different probabilities of detection.
tax evasion; income tax; audit rules; taxpayer behavior
