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Mental Accounting of Self-Employed Taxpayers: On the Mental Segregation of the Net Income and the Tax Due

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  • Stephan Muehlbacher
  • Erich Kirchler

Abstract

Mental accounting practices of self-employed taxpayers are investigated in two studies. Interviews (N=30) revealed that perceptions of the tax due differ widely. While a majority mentally segregate the tax component from their net income, others claim ownership of the gross income as a whole and consequently experience a loss when paying taxes. A survey (N=172) shows that mental segregation is associated with age, income, and number of employees, and is further related to attitudes towards taxes and to self-reported compliance. It is concluded that especially inexperienced self-employed should be trained in favorable mental tax accounting practices to foster voluntary compliance.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephan Muehlbacher & Erich Kirchler, 2013. "Mental Accounting of Self-Employed Taxpayers: On the Mental Segregation of the Net Income and the Tax Due," FinanzArchiv: Public Finance Analysis, Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, vol. 69(4), pages 412-438, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:mhr:finarc:urn:sici:0015-2218(201312)69:4_412:maosto_2.0.tx_2-l
    DOI: 10.1628/001522108X675656
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Adams, Caroline & Webley, Paul, 2001. "Small business owners' attitudes on VAT compliance in the UK," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 195-216, April.
    2. Antonides, Gerrit & Manon de Groot, I. & Fred van Raaij, W., 2011. "Mental budgeting and the management of household finance," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 546-555, August.
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    Cited by:

    1. Fábio Pereira Silva & Reinaldo Guerreiro & Eduardo Flores, 2019. "Voluntary versus enforced tax compliance: the slippery slope framework in the Brazilian context," International Review of Economics, Springer;Happiness Economics and Interpersonal Relations (HEIRS), vol. 66(2), pages 147-180, June.
    2. Stephan Muehlbacher & Andre Hartmann & Erich Kirchler & James Alm, 2023. "Declaring income versus declaring taxes in tax compliance experiments: Does the design of laboratory experiments affect the results?," Economic and Political Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(3), pages 334-349, July.
    3. Benno Torgler, 2021. "Behavioral Taxation: Opportunities and Challenges," CREMA Working Paper Series 2021-25, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    4. Antonides, Gerrit & de Groot, I. Manon, 2022. "Mental budgeting of the self-employed without personnel," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    5. Salahudeen Saeed, 2020. "Small Business Owners’ Perception On Value Added Tax Administration In Ghana: A Preliminary Study," Accounting & Taxation, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 12(1), pages 97-105.
    6. Huang, Jiaqi & Antonides, Gerrit & Nie, Fengying, 2020. "Is mental accounting of farm produce associated with more consumption of own-produced food?," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    7. Sanjit Dhami & Narges Hajimoladarvish, 2020. "Mental Accounting, Loss Aversion, and Tax Evasion: Theory and Evidence," CESifo Working Paper Series 8606, CESifo.
    8. Hu Rongyu, 2023. "Validity verification of Mental Accounting in Public Goods Payment," Working Papers 2213, Waseda University, Faculty of Political Science and Economics.
    9. Nagel, Hanskje & Rosendahl Huber, Laura & Van Praag, Mirjam & Goslinga, Sjoerd, 2019. "The effect of a tax training program on tax compliance and business outcomes of starting entrepreneurs: Evidence from a field experiment," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 261-283.
    10. Stephan Muehlbacher & Barbara Hartl & Erich Kirchler, 2017. "Mental Accounting and Tax Compliance," Public Finance Review, , vol. 45(1), pages 118-139, January.
    11. Olsen, Jerome & Kasper, Matthias & Kogler, Christoph & Muehlbacher, Stephan & Kirchler, Erich, 2019. "Mental accounting of income tax and value added tax among self-employed business owners," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 125-139.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    mental accounting; segregation; tax compliance; tax evasion; voluntary compliance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D81 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Criteria for Decision-Making under Risk and Uncertainty
    • H24 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Personal Income and Other Nonbusiness Taxes and Subsidies
    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • M13 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - New Firms; Startups

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