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Moral Suasion and Taxpayer Compliance
Author(s) -
BARDACH EUGENE
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
law and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.534
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1467-9930
pISSN - 0265-8240
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-9930.1989.tb00020.x
Subject(s) - taxpayer , scrutiny , compliance (psychology) , audit , agency (philosophy) , law and economics , moral agency , business , economics , law , political science , accounting , social psychology , psychology , sociology , social science
Some evidence suggests that certain taxpayers might increase their “voluntary” compliance with the tax laws if presented with the right “moral appeals.” If such appeals were relatively inexpensive, compared to hiring more auditors, say, even small improvements in compliance would justify such efforts. However, would such appeals be “justified” in some philosophical, as opposed to economic or psychological, sense? The moral grounds for voluntary cooperation with the tax collection agency turn out, on close scrutiny, to be surprisingly narrow. Though firm, these moral grounds also contain– arguably, at least–one important exception.