Political Alignment, Attitudes Toward Government, and Tax Evasion

Julie Cullen, Nick Turner and Ebonya Washington

University of California at San Diego, Economics Working Paper Series from Department of Economics, UC San Diego

Abstract: We ask whether attitudes toward government play a causal role in the evasion of US personal income taxes. As turnover elections move voters in partisan counties into and out of alignment with the party of the president, we find with alignment (i) taxpayers report more easily evaded forms of income; (ii) suspect EITC claims decrease; and (iii) audits triggered and audits found to owe additional tax decrease. Coupled with evidence that alignment leads to more favorable views on taxation and spending, our results provide real world evidence that a positive outlook on government lowers tax evasion. (JEL D72, H24, H26, H31)

Keywords: Applied; Economics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-08-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-iue
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Political Alignment, Attitudes toward Government, and Tax Evasion (2021)
Working Paper: Political Alignment, Attitudes Toward Government and Tax Evasion (2018)
Working Paper: Political Alignment, Attitudes Toward Government and Tax Evasion (2018)
Working Paper: Political Alignment, Attitudes Toward Government and Tax Evasion (2018)
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