This paper examines the issue of the ethics of tax evasion. It begins with a review of the literature and proceeds to discuss the three main views on the issue that have emerged over the last 500 years. The paper then reports on the results of a survey taken of Romanian business students and faculty. The ethics of tax evasion can be examined from a number of perspectives. There are
several subissues to be explored. Some of these are of a religious nature, while others
are more secular and philosophical. One approach is to examine the relationship of
the individual to the state. Another is the relationship between the individual and
the taxpaying community or some subset thereof. And the next one is the relationship
of the individual to God.
The literature that exists on this subject is almost entirely theoretical or economic
in nature. With the exception of a few surveys or studies that use surrogate numbers,
not much empirical work has been done. Those studies that have been done cite
mostly public finance literature or literature from psychology. Political science,
philosophical or religious literature seldom, if ever, appear in empirical studies and
perhaps because the individuals conducting the study do not have a background in
these fields, or because they are not interested in philosophical, religious or ethical
aspects of the issue. Nylén (1998) did a survey soliciting the views of Swedish chief executive officers
(CEOs) on the ethics of tax evasion. McGee (1998e) commented on this study. A study
by Reckers, Sanders and Roark (1994) presented participants with a case study and
asked them whether they would be willing to evade taxes. Englebrecht et al. (1998)
did a number crunching study involving 199 subjects who replied to 29 ethical
orientation questions, some of which had to do with tax evasion. Latinobarómetro
conducts annual opinion surveys in more than a dozen Latin American countries,
but only one question addresses the issue of tax evasion. |
