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The tax morale of exhausted taxpayers. The case of Greece

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  • Konstantinos Fotiadis

    (Democritus University of Thrace)

  • Prodromos Chatzoglou

    (Democritus University of Thrace)

Abstract

Every modern and organized country is making progress when its citizens pay their taxes regardless of whether they will be audited or not by the tax authorities. This research attempts to understand the impact of various tax morale related factors on the taxpaying behavior of the exhausted, due to the 10 years long financial crisis, Greek citizens. A new conceptual model is proposed and empirically tested using data from 1.014 Greek citizens from 50 regions of Greece. The results suggest that tax conscience exerts the highest positive and direct influence on tax morale. Furthermore, the crucial role of trust in reciprocity, trust in democracy and trust in public services, which directly affect tax morale, is also confirmed. In addition, it is found that women have higher tax morale than men, while the importance of perceived (level of) tax justice is highlighted, since it indirectly influences tax morale through its strong direct effect on a large number of trust in the quality of governance related factors.

Suggested Citation

  • Konstantinos Fotiadis & Prodromos Chatzoglou, 2022. "The tax morale of exhausted taxpayers. The case of Greece," Constitutional Political Economy, Springer, vol. 33(3), pages 354-377, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:copoec:v:33:y:2022:i:3:d:10.1007_s10602-021-09349-3
    DOI: 10.1007/s10602-021-09349-3
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tax morale; Tax conscience; Tax evasion; Quality of governance; Trust;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • Z1 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics
    • K4 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior

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