Does social perception of tax evaders and tax avoiders affect tax compliance?

There were two main purposes of presented study. One was to The understand how Poles perceive tax avoiders and tax evaders. Another was to see whether social perception of these individuals is associated with a tendency to tax compliance. On the basis of a study on the correlation between perceptions of taxes and tax evasion (Lewis, 1982), we assumed that:

H1: There is a negative relationship between social perception of tax avoiders and tax evaders and the tax compliance in hypothetical and real situations.

The presented study was conducted using an on-line questionnaire on 143 subjects (including 77 women, Age: M = 29.82, SD = 12.82). Social perception of tax evaders and tax avoiders was surveyed by an open question about their characteristics and by a self-developed questionnaire based on Kirchler`s previous research (1998). The tool developed by Niesiobędzka (2013) was used to measure tax evasion and tax avoidance in real and hypothetical situations.

Results have shown that Poles have a positive image of tax avoiders and a negative image of tax evaders. As expected there were differences in the social perception of tax avoiders and tax evaders, depending on the respondents experience of non-paying taxes.

Those who have evaded taxes in real life perceived tax evaders more positively than people who always pay their taxes honestly.