The introduction of self-assessment for income tax collection in the late 1990s marked a striking moment of cultural convergence between the UK and the US. This book analyses the socio-political factors leading to and resulting from this fundamental change in the relationship between taxpayers and the Inland Revenue, using perspectives in comparative law and the new outlooks of modern tax and cultural theory. It will be of interest to those studying theories of compliance, cultural legal studies, and law and society.
Widespread voluntary tax compliance plays a significant role in countries’ efforts to raise the revenues necessary to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. As part of this process, governments are increasingly reaching out to taxpayers – current and future – to teach, communicate and assist them in order to foster a “culture of compliance” based on rights and responsibilities, in which citizens see paying taxes as an integral aspect of their relationship with their government.
The introduction of self-assessment for income tax collection in the late 1990s marked a striking moment of cultural convergence between the UK and the US. This book analyses the socio-political factors leading to and resulting from this fundamental change in the relationship between taxpayers and the Inland Revenue, using perspectives in comparative law and the new outlooks of modern tax and cultural theory. It will be of interest to those studying theories of compliance, cultural legal studies, and law and society.
Widespread voluntary tax compliance plays a significant role in countries' efforts to raise the revenues necessary to achieve Sustainable Development Goals. As part of this process, governments are increasingly reaching out to taxpayers - current and future - to teach, communicate and assist them in order to foster a "culture of compliance" based on rights and responsibilities, in which citizens see paying taxes as an integral aspect of their relationship with their government. The emphasis placed by governments on taxpayer education and assistance helps bridge the gap between tax administrations and citizens, playing a key role - when properly implemented - in transforming tax culture. Building on previous OECD analysis, this report aims to help tax revenue authorities in designing and implementing taxpayer education initiatives. It examines 140 initiatives under implementation in 59 developed and developing countries, offering a classification of different approaches to taxpayer education, and identifying common challenges and solutions. More generally, this report contributes to the OECD's broader work on tax morale and seeks to encourage further research, debates and initiatives, particularly in developing countries, to better understand and ultimately strengthen tax morale and the tax compliance of taxpayers.
This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book takes a taxpayer's perspective on the relations taxation creates between people and their state. Björklund Larsen proposes that in order to understand tax compliance and cheating, we have to look beyond law, psychological experiments and surveys to also include tax collectors and taxpayers' practices. The text explores the view of taxes seen as citizen’s explicit economic relation to the state and implicit economic relation to all other compatriots. Björklund Larsen directs our gaze onto the concept of reciprocity, which is often proposed as an explanation in tax compliance research, and explores its diverse meanings and implications ethnographically. The empirical cases are based on ethnography from two opposing tax practices in Sweden. Firstly, from a study of analysts, auditors, legal experts and managers at the Swedish Tax Agency and how they, quite successfully, strive for legitimacy in their tax collecting activities. Secondly, from fieldwork among a group of middle-aged Swedes and how they justify their purchasing work off the books – essentially tax-cheating practices. Sweden is a modern welfare society with citizens holding rational and secular values, yet trusting their government and fellow citizens. Sweden also has a high tax burden that is collected by one of its most revered governmental agencies – the Swedish Tax Agency - making it an interesting case studying tax compliance.
Why tax law is not just a pocketbook issue but a reflection of what and whom we, as a society, value. Most of us think of tax as a pocketbook issue: how much we owe, how much we'll get back, how much we can deduct. In Our Selfish Tax Laws, Anthony Infanti takes a broader view, considering not just how taxes affect us individually but how the tax system reflects our culture and society. He finds that American tax laws validate and benefit those who already possess power and privilege while starkly reflecting the lines of difference and discrimination in American society based on race, ethnicity, socioeconomic class, gender, sexual orientation and gender identity, immigration status, and disability. Infanti argues that instead of focusing our tax reform discussions on which loopholes to close or which deductions to allow, we should consider how to make our tax system reflect American ideals of inclusivity rather than institutionalizing exclusion. After describing the theoretical and intellectual underpinnings of his argument, Infanti offers two comparative case studies, examining the treatment of housing tax expenditures and the unit of taxation in the United States, Canada, France, and Spain to show how tax law reflects its social and cultural context. Then, drawing on his own work and that of other critical tax scholars, Infanti explains how the discourse surrounding tax reform masks the many ways that the American tax system rewards and reifies privilege. To counter this, Infanti urges us to work together to create a society with a tax system that respects and values all Americans.
This sourcebook captures innovative strategies in 28 countries in order to provide ideas and inspiration to revenue authorities in developing countries with regards to taxpayer education, literacy and outreach to strengthen the tax morale and tax compliance of their citizens.
Taxation has been seen as the domain of charisma-free accountants, lawyers and number crunchers – an unlikely place to encounter big societal questions about democracy, equity or good governance. Yet it is exactly these issues that pervade conversations about taxation among policymakers, tax collectors, civil society activists, journalists and foreign aid donors in Africa today. Tax has become viewed as central to African development. Written by leading international experts, Taxing Africa offers a cutting-edge analysis on all aspects of the continent's tax regime, displaying the crucial role such arrangements have on attempts to create social justice and push economic advancement. From tax evasion by multinational corporations and African elites to how ordinary people navigate complex webs of 'informal' local taxation, the book examines the potential for reform, and how space might be created for enabling locally-led strategies.
The book will be of considerable assistance to students and other researchers working in the area of compliance behaviour, or more generally, in the area of designing empirical studies. Margaret McKerchar, The British Accounting Review Torgler s book is a valuable contribution to the tax field, especially as it pioneers research into tax morale that is in its infancy and helps redress the US domination of the tax-compliance literature. It places econometric analysis where it rightly belongs as the supporting act, not the main feature! and takes a holistic approach in attempting to explain the complex area of human behaviour that tax compliance involves, whatever the country. Jeff Pope, Agenda Benno Torgler has written an exciting and important book. His careful and imaginative use of survey and experimental data explores important behavioral and institutional dimensions of tax policy and administration that have been too long neglected. The book provides a thorough exposition of what we now know about these issues as well as a rich menu of suggestions about how to do empirical research on the relation between citizens and states and how to build social capital through rethinking how states tax their citizens. Richard M. Bird, University of Toronto, Canada The question of why citizens pay their taxes has attracted increased attention in the tax compliance literature of late. In this book, Benno Torgler considers the evidence that suggests that enforcement efforts cannot fully explain the high degree of tax compliance within society. To attempt to resolve this puzzle, numerous researchers have argued that citizens attitudes towards paying taxes (defined as tax morale) help to explain the high degree of compliance. Yet most have treated tax morale itself as a black box, failing to discuss the issues influencing it. This unique volume provides important new insights into the factors that shape the emergence and maintenance of citizens willingness to cooperate with tax legislations in different societies. Distinctive in its examination of citizen tax morale and tax compliance, this book will be of great interest to academics, researchers and students concerned with economics, political science, sociology, social psychology and accounting. It will also appeal to policymakers and practitioners.
