When is Tax Evasion Ethical? An Empirical Study of Armenian Opinion

Abstract

Tax evasion has probably existed ever since the first tax was imposed. But tax evasion - the illegal nonpayment of taxes - is not equally widespread. It is more prevalent in some countries than others. There are several reasons for this lack of homogeneity across time and cultures. Many studies have been done on tax evasion over the years. The vast majority of these studies have taken an economic or public finance perspective. Very few studies have looked at the underlying ethical issues. But these issues are important, since they do much to explain why tax evasion is more rampant in some cultures and countries than others.

After a brief introduction the paper reviews the literature on tax evasion that was written from an ethical perspective. One of the most comprehensive twentieth century works in this area was undertaken by Martin Crowe, who published a doctoral dissertation on this subject in 1944. More recent comprehensive works on the philosophy of taxation and public finance were published by McGee in 1998 and 2004.

Keywords: tax evasion, Armenia, ethics

JEL Classification: D6, E62, H26, K34, K42, M14, M4, O53, P35