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A Knight Without a Sword or a Toothless Tiger? The Effects of Audit Courts on Tax Morale in Switzerland

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  • Benno Torgler

Abstract

The intention of this paper is to analyse how audit courts affect tax morale, controlling in a multivariate analysis for a broad variety of potential factors. Switzerland with its variety of audit court competences among the cantons has been analysed. With data from the ISSP for 1999 evidence has been found that a higher audit court competence has a significantly positive effect on tax morale. Thus, the results in Switzerland suggest that in the cantons where audits courts are not just knights without swords or toothless tigers, they help improve taxpayers? tax morale and thus citizens? intrinsic motivation to pay taxes.

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  • Benno Torgler, 2004. "A Knight Without a Sword or a Toothless Tiger? The Effects of Audit Courts on Tax Morale in Switzerland," CREMA Working Paper Series 2004-06, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    • Handle: RePEc:cra:wpaper:2004-06
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Tax Morale; Tax Compliance; Tax Evasion; Audit Courts Direct Democracy; Local Autonomy;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H26 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Tax Evasion and Avoidance
    • H73 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations - - - Interjurisdictional Differentials and Their Effects
    • D70 - Microeconomics - - Analysis of Collective Decision-Making - - - General

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