The Effect of Religiosity on Tax Fraud Acceptability: A Cross‐National Analysis

Abstract

Religion provides an important basis for social integration and the prevention of deviant behavior, such as tax fraud, a crime that costs society billions of dollars in lost revenue. The literature on tax fraud and tax fraud acceptability (TFA) has neglected religiosity as a social bond that may deter this type of behavior. Furthermore, existing work is based on the United States; there are no systematic cross-national studies. In particular, there is no research exploring the "moral communities" hypothesis that religiosity's effect on deviance will vary according to the strength of national moral communities. The present study addresses these two gaps in the literature by analyzing data on 45,728 individuals in 36 nations from the World Values Surveys. We control for other predictors of TFA, including social bonds, economic strain, and demographic factors. The results determined that the higher the individual's level of religiosity, the lower the TFA. Results on the moral community's hypothesis were mixed. However, in a separate analysis of individual nations, the presence of a "moral community" (majority of the population identifies with a religious group) explained 39 percent of the variation in the presence or absence of the expected religiosity-TFA relationship. Furthermore, the presence of a communist regime in a nation, often known for the oppression of religious groups who then may view the regime as illegitimate, diminished the impact of religion on TFA.One consequence of high levels of religiosity in society can be low rates of deviant behavior, including tax fraud. The significance of tax fraud can be assessed in its economic impact on government. It has become increasingly clear that the capacity of governments to raise revenue is substantially affected by tax evasion (e.g., Hessing et al. 1992:405-06). For example, 7.5 percent of Britain's gross national product escapes taxation while 17 percent of the taxable income in Belgium remains undeclared. In the United States, the amount of tax revenue lost to tax cheating is approximately 20 percent (Grasmick, Bursik, and Cochran 1991:255). A review of 18 studies found that, on average, 20 percent of the population of taxpayers acknowledges cheating on their income taxes. This may be an underestimate because IRS data sometimes report that 35 percent of the returns that they audit are marked by cheating (Hessing, Effers, and Weigel 1988). Hence, tax fraud is a crime with substantial economic consequences involving billions of dollars in lost revenue. This amount dwarfs the profits made in all robberies, larcenies, burglaries, and a host of other street crimes against property (e.g., Brown, Esbensen, and Geis 2001). In short, if the proportion of persons who cheat on their income taxes increases, tax revenues will fall, with economic consequences. Religion, however, has never been applied to the problem of explaining cross-national variation in cultural attitudes toward tax fraud. This article focuses on the importance of religion in shaping cultural attitude...

Religiosity, Spirituality, and Substance Abuse

“…They also found that religiosity was only relevant in contexts where religion was culturally common (Stack & Kposowa, 2006) and where societal values were vague. There have clearly been mixed results not only in the effects of religiosity on deviant and especially substance abusing behaviors, but also in how religiosity may be related or unrelated to measures of bonding.…”

“…Similarly, others have argued that the imposition of social bond variables such as nonreligious morality sources and legal deterrence, in addition to the effects of family and friends, helps to explain the relationship between religiosity and deviant, delinquent, and criminal behaviors (Johnson, Jang, Larson, & De Li, 2001;Evans et al, 1995). Stack and Kposowa (2006) proposed several theoretical explanations for the various frameworks in which religiosity is expected to deter deviant behavior. They claimed that religious bonds, formed through belief systems, would deter adult criminal behavior.…”

“…Thirdly, while much research has examined the roles of spirituality and religiosity in the juvenile context, this research focused on adults, in whom religiosity and spirituality are not under the direct influence of parents and the consequences of substance abuse are much more severe (Evans et al, 1995;Stack & Kposowa, 2006). The predominance of religiosity studies among juveniles that measured religiosity by frequency of church attendance makes it risky to extrapolate from juvenile to adult behavior because of the issue of forced juvenile church attendance (Cochran, Beeghley & Bock, 1988).…”

“…The bonding variables measured an individual's stake in their families and communities and served as preventative measures against deviant behaviors such as substance abuse. In the present study, marital status and education level were intended to measure social bonding (Stack & Kposowa, 2006).…”

Kepatuhan Pajak Dalam Perspektif Neo Ashabiyah

“…Hasil survei terhadap 1000 orang menunjukkan sekalipun mereka ateis, tetap mematuhi membayar pajak, bukan dalam perspektif agama tapi karena rasa bangga pada negara. Hasil ini mengonfrontasi bahwa individu yang tidak memiliki afiliasi keagamaan cenderung melakukan kecurangan pajak (Stack dan Kposowa, 2006). Sementara itu, persepsi religus lainnya menganggap tidak membayar pajak sebagai perbuatan etis dengan alasan bukan bagian dari perintah Tuhan (Yusuf, 1971;McGee, 2012) dan pajak meningkatkan nilai jual barang.…”