The Ethics of Tax Evasion: A Comparative Study of Australian, New Zealand and U.S.A. Opinion

Abstract

In 1944, Martin Crowe, a Catholic priest, wrote a doctoral dissertation titled The Moral Obligation of Paying Just Taxes. His dissertation summarized and analyzed 500 years of theological and philosophical debate on this topic, which identified three basic philosophical positions on the issue. Since Crowe's dissertation, not much has been written on the topic of tax evasion from an ethical or religious perspective.

The present paper uses the data gathered as part of a much larger study on human beliefs and values and compares the views of 2039 Australians, 1155 New Zealanders and 1198 Americans on the ethics of tax evasion. Comparisons are made for general viewpoints as well as by gender, age and level of education to determine if there were any significant differences.

Keywords: ethics, tax evasion, Australia, New Zealand, USA, United States, gender, age, education

JEL Classification: H26,E62,D6,J16,J14,J1,K34,K42,M14,M4,O53,O51