IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v5y2016i1p10-d64848.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Attitudes towards Tax Evasion in Turkey and Australia: A Comparative Study

Author

Listed:
  • Robert W. McGee

    (School of Business and Economics, Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, 1200 Murchison Road Fayetteville, NC 28301, USA)

  • Ken Devos

    (Department of Business Law and Taxation, Faculty of Business and Economics, Monash University, Clayton, VIC 3800, Australia)

  • Serkan Benk

    (Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Inonu University in Malatya, Malatya 44280, Turkey)

Abstract

The authors conducted a survey of 502 Turkish and Australian undergraduate and graduate business and economic students to determine their views regarding the ethics of tax evasion. These two groups were selected on the premise that their views represented the perceptions of two very different cultures, which has not been investigated in previous studies. The survey instrument required students to indicate their level of agreeableness to 18 general statements representing various scenarios in the socio-economic environment. The statements in the survey reflected the three main viewpoints regarding the ethics of tax evasion which have emerged from the literature to date. The results of the study show that although Turkish scores are significantly different from the Australian scores, both Turkish and Australian respondents believe that tax evasion can be ethically justifiable in certain situations, although some arguments are stronger than others.

Suggested Citation

  • Robert W. McGee & Ken Devos & Serkan Benk, 2016. "Attitudes towards Tax Evasion in Turkey and Australia: A Comparative Study," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 5(1), pages 1-13, March.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:5:y:2016:i:1:p:10-:d:64848
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/5/1/10/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/5/1/10/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Robert W. McGee, & Arsen M. Djatej, & Robert H. S. Sarikas,, 2012. "The Ethics Of Tax Evasion: A Survey Of Hispanic Opinion," Accounting & Taxation, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 4(1), pages 53-74.
    2. Alm, James & Torgler, Benno, 2006. "Culture differences and tax morale in the United States and in Europe," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 27(2), pages 224-246, April.
    3. Torgler, Benno & Demir, Ihsan C. & Macintyre, Alison & Schaffner, Markus, 2008. "Causes and Consequences of Tax Morale: An Empirical Investigation," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(2), pages 313-339, September.
    4. Robert McGee, 2006. "Three Views on the Ethics of Tax Evasion," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 67(1), pages 15-35, August.
    5. Robert W McGee, 2006. "The Ethics Of Tax Evasion: A Survey Of Romanian Business Students And Faculty," The IUP Journal of Public Finance, IUP Publications, vol. 0(2), pages 38-68, May.
    6. Benno Torgler, 2007. "Tax Compliance and Tax Morale," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 4096.
    7. Antonides, Gerrit & Robben, Henry S. J., 1995. "True positives and false alarms in the detection of tax evasion," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 16(4), pages 617-640, December.
    8. Robert W. McGee (ed.), 2008. "Taxation and Public Finance in Transition and Developing Economies," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-0-387-25712-9, September.
    9. Robert W. McGee (ed.), 2012. "The Ethics of Tax Evasion," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-1-4614-1287-8, September.
    10. Robert W McGee, 2007. "Ethics and Tax Evasion in Asia," The IUP Journal of Public Finance, IUP Publications, vol. 0(2), pages 21-33, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Colin Williams, 2020. "Evaluating Public Administration Approaches towards Tax Non-Compliance in Europe," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-15, July.
    2. Tomasz Mickiewicz & Anna Rebmann & Arnis Sauka, 2019. "To Pay or Not to Pay? Business Owners’ Tax Morale: Testing a Neo-Institutional Framework in a Transition Environment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 157(1), pages 75-93, June.
    3. Towfiqul Islam Khan & Muntaseer Kamal & Faiyaz Talukdar, 2019. "Potential of Personal Income Tax in Bangladesh: An Examination of Survey Data," CPD Working Paper 126, Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ross Adriana M. & McGee Robert W., 2011. "Attitudes toward Tax Evasion: A Demographic Study of Malaysia," Asian Journal of Law and Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 2(3), pages 1-51, October.
    2. Pickhardt, Michael & Prinz, Aloys, 2014. "Behavioral dynamics of tax evasion – A survey," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1-19.
    3. Robert W. McGee, & Arsen M. Djatej, & Robert H. S. Sarikas,, 2012. "The Ethics Of Tax Evasion: A Survey Of Hispanic Opinion," Accounting & Taxation, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 4(1), pages 53-74.
    4. Robertson Amoah & Samuel Yeboah Asuamah & Newman Amaning, 2014. "An Investigation into Tax Evasion in Ghana," International Journal of Empirical Finance, Research Academy of Social Sciences, vol. 2(3), pages 115-122.
    5. Jahnke, Bjoern, 2015. "Tax morale and reciprocity. A case study from Vietnam," Hannover Economic Papers (HEP) dp-563, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Wirtschaftswissenschaftliche Fakultät.
    6. Khalil, Sandra & Sidani, Yusuf, 2020. "The influence of religiosity on tax evasion attitudes in Lebanon," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    7. Martin Halla, 2011. "The Link between the Intrinsic Motivation to Comply and Compliance Behaviour: A Critical Appraisal of Existing Evidence," Chapters, in: Friedrich Schneider (ed.), Handbook on the Shadow Economy, chapter 11, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    8. Apostol, Oana & Pop, Alina, 2019. "‘Paying taxes is losing money’: A qualitative study on institutional logics in the tax consultancy field in Romania," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 1-23.
    9. Philipp Doerrenberg & Andreas Peichl, 2013. "Progressive taxation and tax morale," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 155(3), pages 293-316, June.
    10. Colin Williams, 2020. "An Institutional Theory of Tax Non- Compliance in Bulgaria: a Tax Morale Approach," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 1, pages 33-49, March.
    11. Benno Torgler & Markus Schaffner & Alison Macintyre, 2007. "Tax Compliance, Tax Morale, and Governance Quality," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0727, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    12. Rajat Deb & Sourav Chakraborty, 2017. "Tax Perception and Tax Evasion," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 6(2), pages 174-185, July.
    13. Erstu Tarko Kassa, 2021. "Factors influencing taxpayers to engage in tax evasion: evidence from Woldia City administration micro, small, and large enterprise taxpayers," Journal of Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 1-16, December.
    14. James Alm & Benno Torgler, 2011. "Do Ethics Matter? Tax Compliance and Morality," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 101(4), pages 635-651, July.
    15. Benno Torgler & Markus Schaffner & Alison Macintyre, 2007. "Tax Compliance, Tax Morale and Governance Quality," CREMA Working Paper Series 2007-17, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    16. Colin C. Williams & Slavko Bezeredi, 2018. "An Institutional Theory Of Informal Entrepreneurship: Some Lessons From Fyr Macedonia," Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship (JDE), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 23(03), pages 1-22, September.
    17. Nichita Ramona-Anca & Batrancea Larissa-Margareta, 2012. "The Implications Of Tax Morale On Tax Compliance Behavior," Annals of Faculty of Economics, University of Oradea, Faculty of Economics, vol. 1(1), pages 739-744, July.
    18. Joseph Nyamapheni & Zurika Robinson, 2021. "Determinants of Tax Morale: Cross-Sectional Evidence from Africa," The Journal of Accounting and Management, Danubius University of Galati, issue 3(11), pages 84-99, December.
    19. Robert McGee & Simon Ho & Annie Li, 2008. "A Comparative Study on Perceived Ethics of Tax Evasion: Hong Kong Vs the United States," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 77(2), pages 147-158, January.
    20. Gebhard Kirchgässner, 2011. "Tax Morale, Tax Evasion and the Shadow Economy," Chapters, in: Friedrich Schneider (ed.), Handbook on the Shadow Economy, chapter 10, Edward Elgar Publishing.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:5:y:2016:i:1:p:10-:d:64848. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.