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The concept of tax evasion is the primary focus of the study. Data is gathered from a survey of approximately eleven hundred individuals across six countries. An eighteen-item scale is presented, analyzed, and discussed. Findings suggest that tax evasion has three overall perceptual dimensions across the items tested: (1) fairness, as related to the positive use of the money, (2) tax system, as related to the tax rates and negative use of the money, and (3) discrimination, as related to avoidance under certain conditions., INTRODUCTION Many articles have been written about tax evasion. Most of them have appeared in the accounting, economics and public finance literature. The usual thrust of these articles is to [...]

The ethics of tax evasion has been discussed sporadically in the theological and philosophical literature for at least 500 years. Martin Crowe wrote a doctoral thesis that reviewed much of that literature in 1944. The debate revolved around about 15 issues. Over the centuries, three main views evolved on the topic. This paper begins with a review of the literature and identifies the main issues and summarizes the three main viewpoints that have emerged over the centuries. It then reports on the results of two surveys of members of the Jewish faith who were asked their opinions on the ethics of tax evasion. The results of the two surveys were then compared. Male scores were also compared to female scores to determine if the responses differed by gender., INTRODUCTION The vast majority of articles that have been written about tax evasion have been written from the perspective of public finance. They discuss technical aspects of tax evasion and [...]

A study was conducted to modify the standard model of taxpayer behavior by including a moral preference parameter. The study used aggregate time series data on self-employed taxpayers to standardize the model. Findings show that tax evasion causes remorse-based disutility comparable to a tax on unreported income at rates averaging 39%.

This study assessed the relationship between ethical reasoning and the decision to grant equitable relief using an innocent spouse vignette where a wife had partial knowledge of her husband's tax fraud. A path model derived from various ethics theories was tested using a sample of 357 accounting, legal, and human resource professionals, and after careful examination of the measurement and structural relationships in the path model, the results provided partial support for the study's hypotheses. Moral intensity was marginally associated with an increased recognition of an ethical issue and positively related ethical judgments made in an innocent spouse situation, and moral intensity was also negatively related to the decision to grant relief. The ethical judgment variable was positively related to the decision to grant relief, while ethical issue awareness was marginally associated with the decision to deny relief. The implications of these findings are discussed, along with the limitations of the study and suggestions for future research. KEY WORDS: equitable relief, innocent spouse rules, tax fraud

The pursuit of economic opportunity has frequently put transnational manufacturing enterprises in the spotlight, accused of contributing to, if not causing, economic hardship, social deprivation, unsustainable growth, labour exploitation, resource plundering and ecological degradation in home and host countries. A substantial part of international trade now consists of intra-firm sales, or commercial transactions between units of the same business corporation, within or beyond the national borders of the parent company. Known as transfer pricing and viewed as a legitimate business opportunity by transnational corporations, it is often used to misrepresent financial success and evade taxation. This has recently instigated many fiscal agencies and governments to take more draconian measures than ever before to protect national financial interests. However, while the fiscal legality of transfer pricing practices is now carefully scrutinized, the heightened interest in its tax aspects has neglected the considerable ethical issues it entails. Unethical transfer pricing behaviour consumes scarce resources, causes costs but does not create value. This paper identifies and discusses some of these ethical issues and assesses their implications for the internalisation of trade, the design of transfer pricing systems, and international tax rules. Opportunities for future research are also outlined. Keywords: arm's length principle, ethics, foreign direct investment, intra-firm trade, tax evasion, transfer pricing

Issues discussed concern economic development and business ethics in Russia. A survey of the ethical behavior of 40 Russian businesspeople is examined, focusing on the attitudes towards corporate illegal activity and tax evasion.

Tax evasion has been mainly studied as a problem of choice under uncertainty; like any portfolio manager, the taxpayer has to allocate her/his fixed gross income between two assets: a risky asset, tax evasion, and a safe asset (with a zero return), tax payment. As suggested by the portfolio theory, the taxpayer's choice will be affected by her/his preferences - mainly by her/his attitude towards risk-taking - and by the return on the risky asset determined by the tax structure, which includes both the tax rate and the penalties in the case of evasion. However, the pure gamble model appears unsatisfactory on various grounds. Among these and most importantly for our purpose, it neglects the psychological aspects of the decision to evade tax because it rules out any feeling of shame about evading or being detected and punished, and it ignores any intrinsic pleasure from successful evasion. In other words, the pure gamble model does not take full account of the moral constraints involved in the tax evasion decision. The main objective of the experiment presented here was therefore to investigate the role played by moral constraints in determining the decision to evade taxes. The experimental evidence supports the thesis that the taxpayer's decisional process involves not only monetary elements but also psychological and moral factors.

This paper deals with the issue of motivations for ethical choices within economic contexts from the perspective of economic psychology. Three general points about motivations are made at the outset: that interesting behaviours usually subserve more than one motivation; that there is no simple one-to-one correspondence between the reasoning behind an act and an 'ethical' choice and that people are often inconsistent. Empirical work in three areas is considered: ethical investment, tax evasion and the environmentally concerned consumer. It is clear that the evidence from these domains does not support a simple utility maximising model and that most people have mixed motives, mixed capabilities and varying opportunities to act in ethical and unethical ways. The frequency of ethical choices can probably be increased if situations are framed in appropriate ways. The more people become aware that nearly all everyday situations involve ethical decisions, the more likely it is that motivations will become consistent with (more ethical) behaviour. KEYWORDS: economic psychology, ethical choices, motivation, ethical investment, tax evasion, green consumption

WAR IN IRAQ WAS NOT THE ONLY ISSUE that led people to suggest that corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate citizenship were avoiding the most important issues about corporations' relations [...]