VIEWS ON THE ETHICS OF TAX EVASION: An Empirical Study of 58 Countries

Abstract

Using data that was gathered as part of the World Values Survey, the present study examines the opinions on the ethics of tax evasion that were gathered from a wide demographic of respondents in 58 countries. The sample size was more than 80,000. The study found that, although tax evasion was not considered to ever be justifiable by a majority of respondents, a substantial minority of the sample believed that it could be justified in some cases. Women were found to be significantly more opposed to tax evasion than men.