The relationship between culture and tax evasion across countries: Additional evidence and extensions

This study builds on the work of Tsakumis et al. [Tsakumis, G. T., Curatola, A. P,. & Porcano, T. M. (2007). The relation between national cultural dimensions and tax evasion. Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, 16, 131-147] by conducting further empirical analysis of the relationship between Hofstede's [Hofstede, G. H. (1980). Cultures consequences: International differences in work-related values. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications] cultural dimensions and tax evasion across countries using multiple measures of tax evasion to gain additional evidence on the subject. Moreover, this study extends the preliminary international tax evasion model developed by Tsakumis et al. [Tsakumis, G. T., Curatola, A. P,. & Porcano, T. M. (2007). The relation between national cultural dimensions and tax evasion. Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, 16, 131-147] to examine, along with culture, the impact of legal, political, and religious variables on tax evasion across countries. Based on data from 47 countries, and after controlling for economic development, the regression results indicate that the higher the level of uncertainty avoidance and the lower the level of individualism, legal enforcement, trust in government, and religiosity, the higher is the level of tax evasion across countries. These findings remain robust to multiple measures of tax evasion. Government policymakers should find the results of this study useful in assessing the likelihood of tax evasion from cultural, legal, political, and religious perspectives, and in developing tax reform policies to reduce tax evasion.     

Determinants of tax evasion: A cross-country investigation

The purpose of this study is to expand on the work of Riahi-Belkaoiu [Riahi-Belkaoiu, A. (2004). Relationship between tax compliance internationally and selected determinants of tax morale. Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, 13, 135-143] and systematically investigate, on a cross-country basis, many of the key determinants of tax evasion identified by Jackson and Milliron [Jackson, B. R., & Milliron, V. C. (1986). Tax compliance research: findings, problems and prospects. Journal of Accounting Literature, 5, 125-165]. Based on data for 45 countries, the results of the OLS regression analysis show that non-economic determinants have the strongest impact on tax evasion. Specifically, complexity is the most important determinant of tax evasion. Other important determinants of tax evasion are education, income source, fairness and tax morale. Overall, the regression results indicate that the lower the level of complexity and the higher the level of general education, services income source, fairness and tax morale, the lower is the level of tax evasion across countries. These findings remain robust to a broad range of cross-country control variables, an alternative tax evasion measure and various interactions.     

Relationship between tax compliance internationally and selected determinants of tax morale

Tax compliance has been studied by analyzing the individual decision of a representative person between planning and evading taxes. A neglected aspect of tax compliance is the impact of a social contract on tax morale. Such implicit contract between the individual and the state guaranteeing a high level of economic freedom, effective competition laws, an important equity market and high moral norms, is hypothesized to have a positive impact on tax compliance. In this paper, empirical evidence based on data from 30 countries indicate that tax compliance internationally is positively related to the level of economic freedom, the level of importance of the equity market and the effectiveness of competition laws and high moral norms.     

Corporate and personal income tax declarations

Decisions by firms and individuals on the extent of their tax payments have generally been treated as separate choices. Empirically, a positive relationship between corporate and personal income tax evasion can be observed. The theoretical analysis in this paper shows that a manager's decision on the firm's behaviour will be independent of his personal preferences if the gain from reducing corporate tax payments is certain, as in the case of tax avoidance. If, however, the firm evades taxes so that the manager's income depends on whether the firm's activities are detected or not, corporate and personal income tax evasion choices cannot be separated. Jel Code H 24 · H 25 · H 26     

Punishing in the public interest: Exploratory Canadian evidence pertaining to convictions and incarcerations for tax offences

Although naming and shaming is a deterrence strategy used by tax authorities, ostensibly to increase tax compliance, the contents of tax conviction notices in which taxpayers are named and shamed have not been investigated in empirical research. To this end, this study uses a sample of 2,570 taxpayers convicted of tax offences by the Canadian tax authority over a ten-year period (2006 through 2015) to identify key characteristics of convictions and incarcerations for tax crimes, and to understand how key conviction characteristics are associated with incarceration. Over this period, findings show that 55% of tax convictions in Canada relate to failure to file tax returns, and that 14% of convicted individuals are incarcerated for an average of 17 months. The mean unreported income per convicted taxpayer is $89,978, the mean unremitted excise tax per convicted taxpayer is $15,330, and the mean fine amount per convicted taxpayer is $48,201. Males are more likely to be convicted of a tax crime than females. Further, professionals are far more likely to be incarcerated than non-professionals. Results also indicate that underreporting related to excise tax as a form of tax evasion is more likely to result in harsher sentencing than underreporting related to income tax. Lastly, we observe a downward trend in convictions and incarceration over the 10-year span, such that the total convictions and incarcerations at the end of the sample period are roughly one-third of the convictions at the beginning. Implications for public policy are discussed.     

论公共产品效率与税收遵从的互动

公共产品效率最大化是构建公共财政体制的关键。公共产品效率不仅关系到资源配置、经济发展与社会和谐,也关系到纳税人权利受尊重和保护的程度、纳税人对政府的评价与信任等,最终将作用于纳税人的税收遵从决策。公共产品效率与税收遵从具有高度相关性。     

The impact of national traditions and cultures on national foresight processes

This paper addresses the influence of national traditions, styles or culture on the use of foresight in decision-making processes. Inspired by sociologists’ contributions on national culture, the paper demonstrates that two dimensions of national culture, power distance and uncertainty avoidance, are useful in the characterisation of the context in which national foresight exercises are carried out. The paper is based on two Danish cases: The Danish Government's Globalisation Strategy, from 2005, and the Danish Research 2015 process, from 2008, which focus on priority settings for strategic research.     

The intoxicating brew of black liquor and son of black liquor: Deciphering the tax planning,research, policy and financial statement implications of tax credits via financial reporting income tax disclosures

In 2007, a change in the law regarding the alternative fuel mixture credit opened the door for paper mills to qualify a byproduct of paper manufacturing, black liquor, as a fuel eligible for the credit. The credit is a refundable credit of $0.50 per gallon. Paper mills can produce hundreds of millions of gallons of black liquor per year and qualified for the credit in 2009. In addition, in 2010 the IRS determined that these firms qualified for the cellulosic biofuels producer credit. Paper mill companies could amend their 2009 tax returns and swap their alternative fuel mixture credits for cellulosic biofuels producer credits worth $1.01 per gallon. The catch was that the alternative fuels mixture credit was refundable; the cellulosic biofuels producer credit was nonrefundable.     

The impact of tax enforcement on corporate investment efficiency: evidence from the tax administration information system

Information technology is essential in tax enforcement. This study found that stronger tax enforcement after the tax administration information system reform improved corporate investment efficiency by reducing excessive investment expenditures. The effect is more significant under higher local government fiscal pressure, poorer external information environments, weaker external corporate governance, and stronger tax avoidance motivation. The main mechanism is based on the quality of the accounting information. This study enriches the literature on the economic consequences of tax enforcement and adds investment efficiency as an influential factor, which provides implications for international governments to use information technology to strengthen tax enforcement.     

国债税收平滑路径、我国国债与税收关系背景和取向分析

本分析了税收平滑在我国的适用情况，通过我国国债和税收政策的演变和背景，我们认为税收平滑在我国一直没有存在的可能性，因此，当期不能简单地将国债增发和减税作为积极财政政策的两个互为补充手段。我国税收征收空间分析应侧重税收经济效应自身，财政税收政策的调整可平稳过渡为国债税收平滑路径的建立做准备。     

The role of political elites in income tax system design and tax fairness

Given the importance of fairness in the public acceptance of tax systems (Mirrlees et al., 2011), understanding the role of political elites in the tax design process and how this impacts fairness is important. In this paper, we use an interpretative approach to examine the design and ultimate rejection of the Kansas tax policy experiment that ran from May 2012 to June 2017. The central design element of this experiment was the fundamental disruption of the long-standing principle of horizontal equity (fairness), in which non-wage business income was relieved of income tax, while wage income was taxed. By interpreting this experiment through a Bourdieusian lens, we identify five key themes that are helpful in understanding income tax design, tax fairness, and the role played by political elites. Overall, we contribute to the literature by highlighting the way in which cultural capital may be used by political elites to reformulate groups of taxpayers in order to justify unequal treatment of equal taxpayers, which represents a violation of the notion of horizontal equity (fairness). We also highlight that although such violations of fairness in income tax system design may be sustainable in the short run, over the longer term, notions of fairness are so deeply embedded in the habitus of individual taxpayers that a return to the status quo is likely.     

Corporate tax aggression and debt

We provide a tradeoff model of the capital structure that allows leverage to be a function of a firm’s choice of tax aggressiveness. The model’s testable implications are supported empirically. Debt use is inversely related to corporate tax aggression for most firms, and the relation is economically important. This substitution effect is especially evident for firms exhibiting high tax-shelter prediction scores. The effect attenuates for benign forms of tax avoidance and during the recent credit crisis period. For the most profitable firms, debt and tax aggression are complements. Our results extend the empirical findings of Graham and Tucker (2006).     

The tax benefit of income smoothing

A worker can reduce tax liability by contributing to a private pension plan when marginal tax rates are high and withdraw pension benefits when marginal tax rates are low. We quantify the tax benefit of income smoothing through the private retirement system and find that it is negligible. This conclusion is important to households, investment advisers, tax policymakers, and scholars engaged in financial retirement planning.     

The ability of deferred tax to predict future tax

We examine the usefulness of tax allocation accounting (deferred tax) for predicting future tax paid and future tax expense. Deferred taxes increase the explanatory power (R²) of regression models where future taxes paid or future tax expense is the dependent variable. However, the mean out‐of‐sample forecast errors for tax paid (future tax expense) is 30 (45.5) percent. Deferred tax increases predictive ability on pooled data, but is inconsistent on a year‐by‐year basis. We examine three explanations for poor predictive ability: losses, tax changes and asset growth. We discuss the policy and practical implications of our findings.     

Limits of tax regulation: Evidence from strategic R&D classification and the R&D tax credit

We investigate a tax avoidance strategy where firms use the ambiguity inherent in tax reporting to classify indirect costs as research and development (R&D) expenditures to take advantage of the R&D tax credit. We label this tax practice “strategic R&D classification”. We find a one standard deviation increase in strategic R&D classification leads, on average, to a 1.7% (1.5%) reduction in GAAP (cash) effective tax rates, suggesting this practice provides significant tax savings. However, we also find strategic R&D classification is related to both the level and changes in uncertain tax benefit liabilities required to be recognized under FIN 48, suggesting this practice comes with financial reporting costs. Our study contributes to the literature by documenting some of the costs and benefits associated with a previously unexplored tax strategy, and highlights the limitations faced by tax authorities in monitoring firms’ R&D tax credit.     

Profit tax competition and formula apportionment

We analyze corporate income tax competition with international capital mobility when the common tax base is allocated to governments according to an apportionment formula. Labor can be either internationally mobile or immobile. We compare the Nash equilibria for different apportionment methods. Tax competition produces lower tax rates the more elastically the formula share responds to tax rate changes. More specifically, equilibrium tax rates are typically lowest when apportionment is based on property-shares, followed by payroll- and sales-shares apportionment. Compared to their cooperative levels, equilibrium tax rates are too low for property-share apportionment but tend to be too high for the other formulas. JEL Classification H77 · H25 · F23     

The Optimality of Punishing Only the Innocent: The Case of Tax Evasion

We study the effectson tax enforcement and tax policy of unintentional complianceerrors by taxpayers and administrative errors by tax auditors.The government can impose both penalties for misreporting andrewards for honest reporting. Maximal sanctions will not be appliedbecause errors are possible, so evasion cannot be eliminatedcostlessly. Under optimal policy intentional evasion can be deterred,but innocent tax evaders must be penalized whether they haveunintentionally evaded or have been mistakenly convicted. Thisdeters intentional evasion, but limits redistribution. Withoutrewards for honest reporting, the revelation principle need notapply, so intentional evasion can occur.     

Why do national GAAP differ from IAS? The role of culture

In this paper, we investigate the role of culture as an explanatory factor underlying differences between national GAAP and International Accounting Standards (IAS). National GAAP can differ from IAS in two ways: (1) divergence: both national GAAP and IAS cover a specific accounting topic but prescribe different methods; or (2) absence: national GAAP do not cover an accounting issue regulated by IAS. Based on Nobes' [Nobes, C. (Ed.) (2001). Gaap 2001—A Survey of National Accounting Rules Benchmarked Against International Accounting Standards. IFAD.] data, we construct a measure for the level of divergence of national GAAP benchmarked on IAS. We also create a measure (labeled absence) to assess the scope of national accounting rules compared to IAS. Our sample is made up of 52 countries. We show that culture matters more than legal origin (common law/civil-law) in explaining divergences from IAS. This result is robust to two proxies for culture: Hofstede [Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations. Second, Sage Publications (London).] and Schwartz [Schwartz, S. H. (1994). Beyond individualism/collectivism: New cultural dimensions of values. In U. Kim, H. C. Triandis, C. Kagitcibasi, S. C. Choi, & G. Yoon (Eds.), Individualism and collectivism: Theory, method and applications (85–119). Sage.]. Our findings contribute to the ongoing debate on accounting harmonization. More specifically, they suggest that the technical and/or political dimensions of the debate, although essential, are not the only ones involved. Opposition to IAS is not exclusively driven by contractual motives, a claimed technical superiority, or legal origin, but also by diversity in cultural factors. Another contribution of this paper is the development of a two-dimensional score to measure the differences between national GAAP and IAS.     

Engaging students in the politics of tax policy: The tax attitudes survey project

Among other influences, the tax system of a democratic government reflects the many and varied attitudes, perceptions and values of its citizens. Understanding the determinants of attitudes and perceptions about the tax system is fundamental to understanding the dynamics and limitations of a tax system created by political processes. This paper introduces the Tax Attitudes Survey Project (TASP), which gives undergraduate students a hands-on introduction to empirical research through which they can gain a rich understanding of some of the factors, such as taxpayer attitudes and perceptions, underlying the politics of current tax-policy debates.     

The effects of standardized tax rates,average tax rates,and the distribution of income on tax progressivity

This study examines the changes in US individual income tax progressivity over the 1986–2003 period using the indexes developed by [Kakwani, N.C., 1976. Measurement of tax progressivity: An international comparison. Economic Journal 87(March), 71–80]. Although progressivity over this time frame has generally been studied in the literature, we provide additional insights by decomposing the changes in index values to account for the effects of concurrent changes in the standardized tax rates, average tax rates, and the income distribution. The decomposition should prove to be particularly useful when different summary indexes lead to conflicting conclusions about progressivity changes, as is often the case. From a policy standpoint, we show that it is the standardized tax rates, a derivative of the legislated tax rates, which need to be monitored and managed to offset the negative progressivity effects of increasing before-tax income inequality.