Moral Aspects of Taxation

Abstract

What are the conditions under which a moral justification of taxation is possible? This question does not only interest philosophers and economists from a scientific point of view, but it can have considerable practical relevance as well because the willingness of citizens to pay taxes may depend upon whether they consider taxation as being morally justified or not. This paper attempts to give some answers on the question what these conditions are. First, reporting results of an empirical study the impact of tax morale on tax evasion is demonstrated. After this, some (philosophical) considerations are presented concerning the moral justification of taxation, i.e. it is asked when we might speak of a moral obligation to pay taxes. Then, we consider some papers which ask for institutional factors that may have an impact on tax morale. We finish with some remarks about possibilities to raise tax morale.

Keywords: tax morale, tax evasion, principles of taxation, trust, direct democracy, federalism

JEL Classification: H20, H26