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Game of tax: Rethinking the relationship between redistribution and reciprocity through a Georgian tax lottery

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  • Lotta Björklund Larsen

Abstract

This article addresses a failed tax lottery in the country of Georgia's rapid yet shaky political and economic development. The purpose of a tax lottery is to formalize transactions and increase tax compliance. It aims to motivate consumers in any commercial transaction to ask for a receipt qua lottery ticket and ensure that businesses pay taxes due. Tax lotteries thus have a dual function: more revenue is collected from businesses, and consumers do soft policing work while also having a chance to win. Taxation and gambling are two very different ways of exchanging. Gambling is mostly voluntary, effortless, and playful, whereas taxation is dull government revenue collection. Yet both gambling and taxation are ways to understand any society and its political life through its reciprocal qualities and redistributive effects. Drawing on anthropological research studying taxation and gambling, this article is a Schumpeterian analysis, as it provides an inlet into how Georgians regard their society. Studying this tax lottery provides an opportunity to rethink the relation between redistribution and reciprocity, and I argue that to understand how citizens accept the redistribution of taxation, we have to attend to its reciprocal qualities.

Suggested Citation

  • Lotta Björklund Larsen, 2023. "Game of tax: Rethinking the relationship between redistribution and reciprocity through a Georgian tax lottery," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(1), pages 100-111, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ecanth:v:10:y:2023:i:1:p:100-111
    DOI: 10.1002/sea2.12269
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Benno Torgler, 2002. "Speaking to Theorists and Searching for Facts: Tax Morale and Tax Compliance in Experiments," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(5), pages 657-683, December.
    2. Junmin Wan, 2010. "The Incentive to Declare Taxes and Tax Revenue: The Lottery Receipt Experiment in China," Review of Development Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(3), pages 611-624, August.
    3. Lars P. Feld & Bruno S. Frey, 2002. "Trust breeds trust: How taxpayers are treated," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 3(2), pages 87-99, July.
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    6. Bazart, C. & Bonein, A., 2014. "Reciprocal relationships in tax compliance decisions," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 83-102.
    7. C. Bazart & Aurélie Bonein, 2014. "Reciprocal relationships in tax compliance decisions," Post-Print hal-02387367, HAL.
    8. Givi Bedianashvili & Yuriy B. Ivanov & Tetiana V. Paientko, 2019. "Tax Reforms in Ukraine and Georgia: Changing Priorities," Journal of Tax Reform, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Ural Federal University, vol. 5(2), pages 107-128.
    9. repec:bla:rdevec:v:14:y:2010:i:s1:p:611-624 is not listed on IDEAS
    10. James Alm, 2012. "Measuring, explaining, and controlling tax evasion: lessons from theory, experiments, and field studies," International Tax and Public Finance, Springer;International Institute of Public Finance, vol. 19(1), pages 54-77, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Chris Hann, 2024. "Taxation and the Polanyian forms of integration in socialist and postsocialist Hungary," Economic Anthropology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(1), pages 6-17, January.

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