Tax Evasion – Moral & Ethical Considerations
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HARRAJ SINGH SOKHI [pic 1][pic 2] TAX EVASION: MORAL & ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS ABSTRACT An academic research on citizen’s ethical attitudes. The aim is to identify significant factors for evaluation of ethical attitudes. [pic 3]Sl. Topic
2. Introduction Tax Evasion is the illegal process by which a company or individuals avoids paying taxes. It is a major issue confronting the government and impacts the overall economy of the nation due to loss of revenue. There are many ways of evading taxes, viz., smuggling, evasion of Sales Tax/ VAT, evasion of Income Tax, misrepresentation/ misreporting of income, etc. The consequent intended / unintended ramifications vis-à-vis increase in bribery, corruption and malfeasance due to weakening ethical and moral attitudes in society are worrisome due to the long term negative impact on the structural and democratic fabric of the country. Tax Evasion and attitudes towards Tax Evasion have been taken as a surrogate for Ethical attitude in this research for Hypothesis Testing purposes. Lower Ethical standards in society disproportionately (and adversely) affect the weaker and marginalized sections of the society and serve to increase the inequities in the society – all dangerous portents for the long term prosperity and sustainability of the society. Hence, this exploratory Research on the Ethical attitudes by obtaining views on Tax Evasion, as a surrogate of ethical decision making, seeks to provide a snap shot of the ethical standards of the respondents’ demographics, which in turn could be extrapolated on to the general population. Tax evasion is a global scourge. The “black” economy has, by some estimates, reached 10% of GDP in advanced countries and can top 70% in developing countries. (Economic Times) India does not have any official estimate about the quantum of black money stashed away by its nationals abroad, but unofficial estimate puts it somewhere between 407.81€ billion and 1.23€ trillion. (Economic Times) 3. Research Objective This research was conducted with the objective to know more about the following: A) What are the major factors impacting Ethical considerations? B) Does Ethical Attitudes impact moral actions? C) Do ethical considerations vary across demographic parameters? 4. Hypothesis In our proposed hypothesis we have considered attitudes towards Tax Evasion as a surrogate to evaluate Ethical Considerations among people and to test the hypotheses. 1. Relationship between Ethical Attitude and Moral Actions. H0: There is no significant relationship between Ethical Attitude and Moral actions.