Tax morale: Framing and fairness

Purpose France is a model of best practice in the European Union as regards policy to combat undeclared work. The purpose of this paper is to take the country as a case study to evaluate the competing explanations of why people engage in undeclared work which underpin such policy, namely, the dominant rational-economic-actor approach and the more recent social-actor approach. Design/methodology/approach To evaluate these approaches, the results of 1,027 interviews undertaken in 2013 with a representative sample of the French population are analysed. Findings The finding is that higher perceived penalties and risks of detection have no significant impact on the likelihood of conducting undeclared work in France. In contrast, the level of tax morale has a significant impact on engagement in the activity: the higher the tax morale, the lower is the likelihood of participation in the undeclared economy. Higher penalties and risks of detection only decrease the likelihood of participation in undeclared work amongst the small minority of the French population with very low tax morale. Practical implications Current policy in France to counter undeclared work is informed principally by the rational-economic-actor approach based on a highly developed infrastructure for detection and significant penalties alongside incentives to declare small-scale own-account work. The present analysis suggests that this approach needs to be supplemented with measures to improve citizens’ commitment to compliance by enhancing tax morale. Originality/value This case study of a country with a well-developed policy framework to combat undeclared work provides evidence to support the social-actor approach for informing policy change.

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Trickle down Tax Morale: A Cross Country Survey Experiment

10.1596/1813-9450-9507 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Jonathan Mellon ◽

Tiago Peixoto ◽

Fredrik M. Sjoberg ◽

Varun Gauri

Keyword(s):

Survey Experiment ◽

Tax Morale ◽

Cross Country ◽

Trickle Down

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Steuerzahlverhalten quantifizieren

Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte / Economic History Yearbook ◽

10.1515/jbwg-2021-0017 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 62 (2) ◽

pp. 473-503

Author(s):

Korinna Schönhärl

Keyword(s):

Scientific Method ◽

The Political ◽

Tax Morale ◽

Empirical Results ◽

Measuring Methods ◽

Ideal Image ◽

Tax Payments ◽

The Ideal ◽

Payment Behaviour

Abstract From the 1880s scientists developed methods to measure (dishonest) tax payment behaviour. The first part of this article provides an overview of these methods and their development. The second part enquires into the function of measuring methods in the societal discourse about (honest) tax payments. The tax morale research of Günter Schmölders, carried out in the 1950s and 1960s, is then examined as a case study. The focus of interest is on the political advice that Schmölders gave, as based on his empirical results, and on the ideal image of the citizen and society which underlay the scientific method.

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Evaluating the individual- and country-level variations in tax morale

Journal of Economic Studies ◽

10.1108/jes-09-2016-0182 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 44 (5) ◽

pp. 816-832 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Colin C. Williams ◽

Besnik Krasniqi

Keyword(s):

Tax Compliance ◽

State Intervention ◽

Developed Countries ◽

Social Actor ◽

Actor Model ◽

Tax Morale ◽

Content Type ◽

Country Level ◽

The One ◽

The Individual

Purpose Recently, a small but burgeoning literature has argued that tax non-compliance cannot be fully explained using the conventional rational economic actor approach which views non-compliance as occurring when the pay-off is greater than the expected cost of being caught and punished. Instead, a social actor approach has emerged which views tax non-compliance as higher when “tax morale”, defined as the intrinsic motivation to pay taxes, is low. To advance this social actor model, the purpose of this paper is to evaluate the individual and national heterogeneity in tax morale, which is crucial if tax compliance is to be improved. Design/methodology/approach To do this, the authors report data from the 2010 Life in Transition Survey on tax morale in 35 Eurasian countries. Findings Logit econometric analysis reveals, on the one hand, that there is higher tax morale among middle-aged, married, homeowners with children, with a university degree and employed, and on the other hand, that there is higher tax morale in more developed countries with stronger legal systems and less corruption, and higher levels of state intervention in the form of both taxation and expenditure. Research limitations/implications Rather than continue with the rational actor approach, this paper reveals that how an emergent social actor approach can help to more fully explain tax non-compliance and results in a different policy approach focused upon changing country-level economic and social conditions associated with low tax morale and thus non-compliance. Practical implications These results display the specific populations with low tax morale which need targeting when seeking to tackle tax non-compliance. Originality/value This paper provides a new way of explaining and tackling tax non-compliance in Eurasian countries.

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