Perceptions of Tax Evasion as a Crime

Stewart Karlinsky, Hughlene Burton†, Cindy Blanthorne

Taxation from ATAX, University of New South Wales

Abstract: This paper considers on aspect of the deficit faced by the U. S. economy. It considers the contribution to this deficit made by the taxpayers that do not fully report taxable income and/or do not pay taxes on their income. The gap between what is owed in tax and the amount of tax actually paid is estimated at $310 billion. What portion can be attributed to underreporting and non filing? The study reported in this paper attempted to measure the perceptions of US citizens as to the seriousness of tax evasions relative to other crimes and violations. The results show that tax evasion ranked 11th among the twenty-one offences surveyed. This means that the average person views tax evasion as only somewhat serious. Compared to other white collar crimes it ranked below accounting fraud, violation of child labour laws and insider trading, and equal to welfare fraud and higher than violation of minimum wage laws.

Keywords: Tax evasion; crime; perceptions; U.S. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 15 pages
Date: 2005-04-22
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-acc
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