What is it about?

This study looks at whether taxpayers making a decision that affects them and a partner at the same time will be more aggressive (e.g. report less income) than taxpayers who only make a similar decision for themselves. This study shows that taxpayers making a decision that affects another person are more conservative (e.g. they report more income) than when the taxpayer is making the decision only for themselves.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Using this study, taxpayers can better understand how they make tax reporting decisions. Especially if this behavior is exhibited at a subconscious level. Also, regulators can use the result of this study to further refine audit selection techniques and focus efforts where taxpayers may be more inclined to under-report income.

Perspectives

I really like this study as a building block to examine how relationships impact taxpayer decision making. In the current study the taxpayer had only one partner and that partner was silent. I am interested to explore whether a partners with various reporting preferences or the number of partners or the type of partner (spouse versus business partner) also impact reporting behavior.

William Brink
Miami University

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: The Effects of a Shared Interest and Regret Salience on Tax Evasion, Journal of the American Taxation Association, December 2015, American Accounting Association,
DOI: 10.2308/atax-51196.
You can read the full text:

Read

Contributors

The following have contributed to this page