Is Trust a Valid Indicator of Tax Compliance Behaviour? A Study on Taxpayers’ Public Perception Using Sentiment Analysis Tools

Compliant behaviour in the field of taxes has a profound impact on the economic and social field. Tackling the tax evasion phenomenon is not an easy thing to do. That is why there are several public institutions that are preoccupied with discovering and punishing it. The discovery of the actions that rely on the sphere of tax evasion can come through the Tax Authority which in turn is able to punish it by a fine. Fraudsters in the tax field are using more sophisticated techniques and technological tools that make the discovery very difficult. Identifying and combating tax evasion is a complex process and knowledge from various fields is needed. Our study tries to identify those variables relating to taxpayers’ behaviour that could be tackled by the Tax Authority in order to control this phenomenon. We achieved this objective by the use of NLP algorithms for analysing free speech answers on an online survey. In this sense, our research hypothesis is that trustworthiness in the State is positively correlated with an optimistic perception of the fiscal system. We analysed what is the structure of perception and which are the words that are most frequent. Results are in accordance with the literature review of the factors that impact compliant behaviour and confirm our hypothesis. The utility of results relies on the fact that in the context of smart governance, and Public Authorities should look at citizens’ perception of tax policies and services in order to adapt its actions for an efficient collection of revenues to the State's budget.