Tax-Rate Biases in Tax Decisions: Experimental Evidence

Author(s)
Harald J. Amberger, Eva Eberhartinger, Matthias Kasper
Abstract

This study investigates biases in tax decisions. In a series of four laboratory experiments with 303 students and 62 tax professionals, we document a systematic tax-rate bias in decisions under time constraints. Specifically, decision makers overestimate the relevance of less complex tax-rate information compared to more complex tax-base information. This behavior leads to suboptimal tax decisions. We also find that decision making, on average, is unaffected by professional experience: Students and tax professionals are similarly prone to tax-rate bias. However, senior tax professionals are more rationally inattentive. These decision makers are less likely to exhibit a tax-rate bias when exhibiting such bias is relatively costly. Overall, our findings suggest that resource constraints impede the use of complex tax-base information, which results in suboptimal tax decisions. Interviews with senior tax professionals indicate potential for tax-rate biases in real-world tax decisions and thereby provide directions for future research.

Organisation(s)
Department of Occupational, Economic and Social Psychology
External organisation(s)
Dartmouth College, Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien (WU)
Journal
Journal of the American Taxation Association
Volume
45
Pages
7-34
No. of pages
28
DOI
https://doi.org/10.2308/JATA-2020-019
Publication date
03-2022
Peer reviewed
Yes
Austrian Fields of Science 2012
501029 Economic psychology
Keywords
ASJC Scopus subject areas
Accounting, Finance
Portal url
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/taxrate-biases-in-tax-decisions-experimental-evidence(aec7d643-fe8f-44ad-934f-2fd2b34e544b).html