Implementation of a Laboratory Experiment in a Student Environment to Study the Behavior of Taxpayers in Russia

The purpose of the work is to develop and test a methodology for conducting a tax experiment in the educational process to determine the optimal level of tax burden and study the behavioral motives of individuals. The research materials are the data of a laboratory experiment conducted in 2021 among the students of Russian universities (304 questionnaires). Research methodology: questionnaire survey, decision tree, random forest, cluster analysis, canonical analysis, matching method, tabular method. The hypothesis of the study is that the most effective instrument for stimulating voluntary declaration of income of individuals is tax control, rather than stimulating tax measures aimed at reducing the tax burden and exempting citizens from tax liability measures. The desire to declare is not based on the income level of the taxpayer, but on tax costs. At the same time, the effect of the probability of being audited by tax authorities on the declaration of income is much stronger than the influence of the size of the tax rate. Finally, the general perception of the tax system determines the category of the taxpayer with a probability of 99.34%. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the complex development of a new methodological approach to conducting and processing the results of laboratory experiments based on factor surveys of students and allowing them to assess the optimal tax burden, to identify moral, ethical and financial motives for the tax behavior of individuals. The study differs from previously conducted Russian and foreign analogues in that it makes it possible to assess the impact that the tax payer's educational background has on their taxpaying behavior under different fiscal conditions and reveals in detail not only the technology for conducting such an experiment, but also methods for processing its results.