Everyday representations of tax avoidance, tax evasion, and tax flight: Do legal differences matter?

Author(s)
Erich Kirchler, Boris Maciejovsky, Friedrich Schneider
Abstract

From an economic point of view, legal considerations apart, tax avoidance, tax evasion and tax flight have similar effects, namely a reduction of revenue yields, and are based on the same desire to reduce the tax burden. Due to legal differences and moral concerns it is, however, likely that individuals perceive them as different and as unequally fair. Overall, 252 fiscal officers, business students, business lawyers, and small business owners produced spontaneous associations to a scenario, describing tax avoidance, tax evasion, or tax flight, and evaluated them as positive, neutral or negative. The results indicate that everyday representations differ with respect to tax avoidance, tax evasion, and tax flight. Tax evasion was perceived rather negatively, tax flight neutrally, and tax avoidance positively. 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Organisation(s)
External organisation(s)
Johannes Kepler Universität Linz, Max Planck Institute for Research into Economic Systems
Journal
Journal of Economic Psychology
Volume
24
Pages
535-553
No. of pages
19
ISSN
0167-4870
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-4870(02)00164-2
Publication date
2003
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
5010 Psychology
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/024edd68-6079-4168-b9ad-c705e80ea2bc