Students' attitudes towards tax fraud in spanish universities

Abstract

The degree of tax compliance is a question of citizenship. The effects of non-compliance, i.e. tax fraud, impact negatively on the people as a whole. It is a gross disservice especially to those that assume their social obligations and fulfil adequately their tributary responsibilities. The fact that an important percentage of the population allows and justifies tax evasion implies that Government does not collect money enough to maintain The Welfare State. The purpose of this work is to know the perception towards tax fraud of Spanish university students from a sample of undergraduate students. The study aims to find some of the motivations and/or attitudes that can be determinant in the degree of rejection or justification of tax evasion. It also aims to identify what actions are perceived as the most efficient related to fight against the tax fraud as well as the perceived effects of this fraud. Results show as a main conclusion that there is an important percentage of people surveyed that justifies tax fraud in some way. To the extent that taxpayers perceive that both the system and the society “give the go-ahead” to tax fraud, this deviant behaviour would be more justified and tax evasion will be perceived less and less as a social problem. We conclude that education system must include tax and ethical considerations in order to prevent this.