Assembles the findings of economic-psychological research on tax compliance with a
focus on tax evasion.
Erich Kirchler is a Professor in the Faculty of Psychology at the
University of Vienna. His research interests include economic psychology, household
financial decision making and tax behaviour and he has written several books in these
areas.
Table of Contents
List of figures vii
List of tables ix
Foreword Valerie Braithwaite xi
Preface xiii
1 Introduction 1
2 Tax law, the shadow economy and tax non-compliance 5
2.1 Complexity of tax law 5
2.2 Shadow economy 13
2.3 Tax compliance versus non-compliance 21
2.3.1 Definitions of tax compliance, avoidance and evasion 21
2.3.2 Diffusion of income tax evasion 23
3 Social representations of taxes 28
3.1 Subjective knowledge and mental concepts 31
3.1.1 Subjective knowledge 31
3.1.2 Subjective concepts of taxation 39
3.2 Attitudes 49
3.3 Norms 58
3.3.1 Personal norms 59
3.3.2 Social norms 64
3.3.3 Societal norms 70
3.4 Behaviour control: perceived opportunities of non-compliance 72
3.5 Fairness 73
3.5.1 Distributive justice 78
3.5.2 Procedural justice 84
3.5.3 Retributive justice 87
3.5.4 Individual and situational differences in justice concerns 90
3.5.5 Justice and social identification 93
3.6 Motivation to comply 96
3.6.1 Motivational postures 96
3.6.2 Tax morale 99
4 Tax compliance decisions 103
4.1 Audit probabilities, fines, tax rate and income effects 107
4.1.1 Audit rates 108
4.1.2 Fines 111
4.1.3 Marginal tax rate 114
4.1.4 Income 115
4.1.5 Reasons for weak effects of audits and fines 116
4.2 Repeated audits 118
4.3 Heuristics, biases and framing effects 129
5 Self-employment and taxpaying 152
6 Interaction between tax authorities and taxpayers 167
7 Cautious conclusions 182
7.1 Methodological concerns 182
7.2 Summary of research findings 187
7.2.1 Interaction between tax authorities and taxpayers 189
7.2.2 Social representations of taxes 191
7.2.3 Deciding to pay taxes 197
7.2.4 Self-employmentand paying taxes out of pocket 200
7.3 The 'slippery-slope model': trust in authorities and voluntary compliance versus
power of authorities and enforced compliance 202
References 207
Index 233
262 pages, Paperback