Macro determinants of the income underreporting by the self-employed

Purpose - The aim of the article is to indicate the macro factors shaping the phenomenon of concealing income by self-employed workers. Research method - This article uses the comparative analysis method together with an analysis of critical literature. The empirical element employs dependency analysis methods. Results - The conducted analyses indicate the lack of a relationship between the level of economic development of the state and the scale of the phenomenon of income concealment. Similarly, it has been demonstrated that there is no evidence of a correlation between the level of unemployment and the rate of self-employment and the scale of income concealment by self-employed people. The results of the conducted analyses allowed the identification of two paradoxes. The first consists in the existence of a negative relationship between the scale of income concealment and the size of the grey economy, while the second consists in the occurrence of a positive relationship between the friendliness of the tax system for entrepreneurs and the scale of lowering the tax base. Originality /value / implications /recommendations - The article supplements an existing research gap. The research undertaken thus far concerned the analysis of factors influencing the international diversity of the grey sphere size. However, no detailed analysis was carried out regarding the impact of macro factors on the shaping of the grey economy, including the lowering of incomes by self-employed workers. The original contribution of the article is also the study of the relationship between the size of the phenomenon of income understatement and the size of the grey economy.