Post on 14-Dec-2015
transcript
Erich KirchlerUniversity of Vienna, Austria
ICAP-Paris - 2014
Tax Psychology (4)Segmentation: age, gender, income, education and self-
employment
Differential perspective
Taxpayers should not all be lumped together and perceived as a homogeneous group: they find themselves in various situations, have developed different personal values, prove generous when there are calls for donations for the socially disadvantaged or those effected by catastrophes, and often have a decided sense of community.
View of humankind:
Social beings with different motivational postures
Education strategies: responsive regulation
Differential perspective(s) - segmentation
Tax authority
Government
Taxpayers
Individuals characterized by motivational postures
Seg
men
tatio
n an
d re
spon
sive
reg
ulat
ion
View of system:Authorities
Differential perspective(s) - segmentation
Person:
Opportunity makes the thiefSocio-demographic characteristics: age, gender, education, income, etc. … Religion, personal norms, personality characteristics, etc.
• Right and left hand with Canon Scanner• Digital measuring of R2D, R4D, L2D, L4D (digital vernier caliper; 0.01 mm)
AgeSex (assessing 2D:4D)
• Repetition of measurement after two days• ICC = .975 – .999
(F = 78.51 – 2261.69; df1 = 106; df2 = 106, p < .001)
Demographic segmentationMeta-analyses of effects of socio-demographic characteristics (Hofmann, E. et al., 2014)
Approximately 459 studies; 570,000 participants
Age: Studies: 416 (mainly EVS, ISSP, Latinobarometro, WVS)
N = 550,870 r = .12***
Sex: Studies: 459 (mainly ESS, EVS, ISSP, Latinobarometro, WVS)
N = 570,408 r = .06***
Education: Studies: 342 (mainly EVS, ISSP, Latinobarometro, WVS)
N = 439,099 r = -.02***
Income: Studies: 340 (mainly EVS, ISSP, WVS)
N = 390,902 r = -.04***
99
BLUE COLLAR WORKERS
Public deficit
Criticism of the government
Associations to taxes of entrepreneurs, civil servants, students, white, and blue collar workers (explained variance: Dimension 1 = 38%; Dimension 2 = 30%; Dimension 3= 17%; Kirchler, 1998)
Dim
ensi
on
2
Dimension 3Dimension 1
1.50
-.690 -.80
0.86
-1.36
-.77
0
.89
Lack of clarity Technical tax termsEconomic regulator
STUDENTSENTREPRENEUERS
Not categorized
BureaucracyNames of politicians and political institutions
Punishment and disincentive
Tax evasionNecessary evil
Social securityWHITE COLLAR WORKERS
Social welfareSocial justice
CIVIL SERVANTS
Salary and income
Financial loss
Criticism of politicians
Instrument for politicians
Public goods
Public constraintSTUDENTSENTREPRE
NEUERS
WHITE COLLAR WORKERS
10
Structural relationship between duration of running a business, age of respondents, perceived limitation of freedom, attitudes towards taxes, tax morale and intention to evade (Kirchler, 1999)
Duration of business in years
Age
Intention to evade
Tax morale
Attitudes towards taxes
Perceived limitation of
freedom
-.18
.36
.52
.44
-.36
Lozza, E., Kastlunger, B., Tabliabue, S. & Kirchler, E. (2013). The relationship between political ideology and attitudes
toward tax compliance: The case of Italian taxpayers
Research on tax behaviour has given little attention to taxpayers’ political affiliations when studying attitudes towards tax evasion. The present paper aims to explore the relationship between political party preferences and attitudes toward tax compliance within the “slippery slope framework”. Results deriving from mixed-method research conducted in Italy with self-employed taxpayers show significant differences between left-leaning and right-leaning taxpayers in terms of attitudes toward tax evasion. Findings describe two different paths, one for each political affiliation, that might lead to higher levels of tax compliance, as well as different meanings and values attached to tax behaviours. In particular, left-leaning voters express higher voluntary cooperation and show reactance to power of authorities, whereas right-leaning voters, who express higher levels of enforced tax compliance, are more sensitive to enhancement of their voluntary cooperation, by increasing their trust in authorities and institutions.
Trust Legitimatepower
Coercivepower
Enforcedcompliance
Voluntarycompliance
Tax evasionN=108 N=164 Tax evasion
Enforcedcompliance
Voluntarycompliance
Trust Legitimatepower
Coercivepower
Left Right
.67** .45** .62** .35**
-.26*-.25*
.28** .12 .30** .16*
-.18*
-.10
-.43** .13
.42** -.29* .18* .39**
-.13
-.12
-.10 .24*
Lozza et al. (2013): Political party preference and tax behavior
Mental accounting of self-employed taxpayers
On the mental segregation of the net income and the tax due
Stephan Muehlbacher & Erich KirchlerUniversity of Vienna
Faculty of Psychology: Department of Applied Psychology:
Work, Education, Economy
Mental accounting of taxpayers
GROSSINCOME
NETINCOME TAX
GainsLosses
Value+
-x
-
Should I evade taxes?
GainsLosses
Value+
-x
-
Should I evade taxes?
Integration
Segregation
Field manual
1. Topic of this interview is money management. Please tell me something about your revenues and expenditures in your company. How are these composed and how do you administer them?
2. When you have mentioned your expenditures you have mentioned (did not mention) taxes. Please tell me about your experiences with taxes and how you are handling them.
3. If you think about the very beginning of your career als self-employed: what has changed since then regarding you money mangement?
4. Did anything change regarding how you administer your taxes?
5. How and when in your career did you first deal with taxes and their administration?
6. If you think about your everyday business: in which situations are you confronted with tax issues? When do taxes cross your mind?
Main findings
• 90 Statements expressing segregation of net income and taxes:– „Actually taxes are not really costs for my company, because we are
only taking them and administer them for the government.“ – „The money I pay as taxes has never been my money“– „I put the money for paying taxes on an extra bank account“
• 16 Statements expressing integration of net income and taxes:– „When I earn something I do not really think about the taxes i‘ll have to
pay. “– „I cannot pay them more than half of my income [as taxes]! “
Purpose
– Developing a scale to measure mental integration vs. segregation of net income and tax liability
– Exploring antecedents and consequences of mental integration
Scale development
• 17 raw items for the mental accounting scale– 37 statements from own interviews – 5 statements from interviews by Adams and Webley (2001)– Revised and summarized by a group of 5 experts
Resulting in 17 items to form a 7-point Likert-scale
• Excluding 7 items– 4 items were dropped due to ceiling-effects (Md=1 or 7)– 3 items were due to low inter-item correlations (all r<.3)
• Factor analysis with remaining 10 items
Scale development: Factor loadings(oblimin rotation)
Items Iλ=3.18
IIλ=1.34
IIIλ=1.07
Mma08When planning my sales at the beginning of a year, I already think about how much the fixed costs and the tax liability will be
,798 ,118 -,084
Mma07 When I earn some money I automatically think about the incidental taxes ,690 ,000 ,146
Mma06 When doing my cost estimations I am always thoroughly computing how much exactly remains for myself after paying my fixed expenses and income tax
,667 -,042 ,202
Mma12 I know relatively well, how much money I have to put aside for paying my income tax ,657 ,042 -,124
Mra02 I always put some money aside for the case the tax office claims additional payments ,521 -,269 ,086
Mma09Instantly after a customer has paid me, I am mentally deducting roughly the amount I will have to pay as taxes later on
,501 -,277 -,050
Mra04 I think it is essential to put aside an appropriate amount of money extra for the income tax ,013 -,800 -,054
Mra03In my experience it makes sense to have a separate bank account to put aside something for the income tax
,050 -,770 ,071
Mbn17 I never really look upon the money I pay as income tax as my money ,133 ,191 ,841
Mbn15The income tax virtually is money we are looking after for the government, my customers are paying it
-,127 -,231 ,765
Scale development: Labeling and reliabilityItems I
λ=3.18II
λ=1.34III
λ=1.07
Mma08When planning my sales at the beginning of a year, I already think about how much the fixed costs and the tax liability will be
,798 ,118 -,084
Mma07 When I earn some money I automatically think about the incidental taxes ,690 ,000 ,146
Mma06 When doing my cost estimations I am always thoroughly computing how much exactly remains for myself after paying my fixed expenses and income tax
,667 -,042 ,202
Mma12 I know relatively well, how much money I have to put aside for paying my income tax ,657 ,042 -,124
Mra02 I always put some money aside for the case the tax office claims additional payments ,521 -,269 ,086
Mma09Instantly after a customer has paid me, I am mentally deducting roughly the amount I will have to pay as taxes later on
,501 -,277 -,050
Mra04 I think it is essential to put aside an appropriate amount of money extra for the income tax ,013 -,800 -,054
Mra03In my experience it makes sense to have a separate bank account to put aside something for the income tax
,050 -,770 ,071
Mbn17 I never really look upon the money I pay as income tax as my money ,133 ,191 ,841
Mbn15The income tax virtually is money we are looking after for the government, my customers are paying it
-,127 -,231 ,765
I. Mental Accounting (6 items, α = .76, M=4.11, SD=1.35)
I know relatively well, how much money I have to put aside for paying my income tax
II. Real Accounting (2 items, α = .53, M=4.12, SD=1.67)In my experience it makes sense to have a separate bank account to put aside something for the income tax
III. Tax money ≠ my money (2 items, α = .52 , M=4.10, SD=1.74)I never really look upon the money I pay as income tax as my money
Scale development:Correlations between sub-scales
Mental accounting
(α = .76)
Real accounting
(α = .53)
tax money ≠ my money
(α = .52)
Mean score
(α = .75)
Mental accounting
- r = .69**
Real accounting
r = .39** - r = .76**
tax money ≠ my money
r = .21** r = .22** - r = .70**
Note: * p ≤ .05, ** p ≤ .01
Antecedents of integration vs segregation
Mental accountingReal
accountingtax money ≠ my money
Mean score
Branches F(1,167) = 1.45 F(1,167) = 2.06 F(1,167) = 0.72 F(1,167) = 1.24
Staff size rho = -.20** rho = -.03 rho = -.09 rho = -.15*
Sex t(170) = -0.21 t(170) = 0.38 t(170) = 1.61 t(170) = 0.92
Income rho = .10 rho = .17* rho = -.02 rho = .11
Experience rho = -.03 rho = -.00 rho = .05 rho = .02
Age r = .06 r = .10 r = .17* r = .17*
Note: * p ≤ .05, ** p ≤ .01
Consequences of integration vs segregation
• Tax morale (motivational postures, Braithwaite, 2003)
• positive: Deference (4 items, α = .75)• negative: Defiance (6 items, α = .46)
• Reactance (Kirchler, 1999, 2 items , r = .53**, α = .69)
• Tax evasion scenarios (Kirchler & Wahl, 2010, 5 items, α = .79)
• Tax avoidance scenarios (Kirchler & Wahl, 2010, 5 items, α=.61)
• Self reported tax behavior (Have you ever tinkered with the
idea to evade taxes? yes/no)
* p ≤ .05** p ≤ .01
Consequences ofintegration vs segregation
Mental accountingReal
accounting
Income tax was never my
moneyMean score
Deference (positive) r = .20** r = .17* r = .23** r = .28**
Defiance (negative) r = .00 r = .05 r = -.03 r = .01
Reactancemotives r = -.15* r = .04 r = -.13 (p=.08) r = -.11
Note: * p ≤ .05, ** p ≤ .01
Consequences of integration vs segregation
Tax Evasion Scenarios
B SE (B) β
Mental accounting – 0.23 0.12 – .17*
Real accounting 0.15 0.12 .11
Tax money ≠ my money 0.04 0.11 .03
Mean Score - 0.03 0.11 - .02
Note: All predictors are z-transformed, all tolerance values > .82, * p ≤ .05, ** p ≤ .01
Consequences of integration vs segregation
Self reported tax behavior (Have you ever tinkered with the idea to evade taxes? yes/no)
β SE (β) Odds-ratio Wald test
Mental accounting -0.47 .20 0.63 5.29*
Real accounting -0.27 .20 0.77 1.71
Tax money ≠ my money 0.09 .19 1.09 0.21
Mean Score - 0.44 .19 0.64 5.64*
Note: All predictors are z-transformed, all tolerance values > .82, * p ≤ .05, ** p ≤ .01
Consequences ofintegration vs segregation
Tax Avoidance Scenarios
B SE (B) β
Mental accounting 0.34 0.10 .26**
Real accounting 0.29 0.10 .23**
Tax money ≠ my money -0.04 0.10 -.03
Mean Score 0.43 0.10 .33**
Note: All predictors are z-transformed, all tolerance values > .82, * p ≤ .05, ** p ≤ .01