Tax psychology

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The control psychology is an interdisciplinary approach to the explanation of settings , emotions , motivations and behavior of taxpayers towards taxation; essentially economic, (social) psychological and sociological findings are combined.

Tax psychology was largely founded by Günter Schmölders and established in finance ; In the 1950s, he expanded existing models and theoretical approaches in the sense of socio-economic behavior research to include financial and social psychological, political and sociological aspects and coined terms such as tax burden, tax morality and tax mentality . When it comes to the tax burden, a distinction is made between 'objective' and 'subjective' tax burden: the 'objective tax burden' stands for the loss of income actually caused by taxation, while the 'subjective tax burden' (the so-called 'tax burden feeling') of psychological perception filters (for example the noticeability and durability of the tax or one's own financial situation). The 'tax mentality' describes above all the general attitude towards taxation as a whole, i.e. attitudes towards tax liability, tax fairness, tax honesty etc. Finally, the 'tax morality' is reflected in the attitudes of taxpayers to the question of fulfilling or neglecting their tax obligations, i. H. in the attitudes to the question of the tax offense. According to Schmölders ' tax psychological model, tax burdens, tax mentalities and tax morals affect tax resistance and can induce taxpayers to evade tax .

The theoretical approaches were tested in the research center for empirical social economics founded by Schmölders using methods of empirical social research . He published his first Federal Republican findings in 1960 in The Irrational in Public Finance , whereby the empirical confirmation of occupational group-specific differences in feelings of burden and tax morals triggered scientific and public interest.

More recent international studies on tax evasion have "presented numerous empirical results, which, however, do not go significantly beyond what Schmölders published two decades ago"; In addition to tax psychological aspects, the analyzes focus primarily on personality traits and situational factors.

See also

Tax compliance

literature

  • W. Franzen: What do we know about tax evasion? Part 1: Theoretical explanations for a widespread exception to the rule. In: New criminal policy. 2/2008, pp. 72-79.
  • W. Franzen: What do we know about tax evasion? Part 2: Empirical research - nothing except expenses? In: New criminal policy. 3/2008, pp. 94-101.
  • K.-H. Hansmeyer, K. Mackscheidt: Financial Psychology. In: Fritz Neumark (Hrsg.): Handbuch der Finanzwissenschaft. 3. Edition. Tübingen 1977, pp. 553-583.
  • E. Kirchler: The Economic Psychology of Tax Behavior . Cambridge University Press , Cambridge 2007, ISBN 978-0-521-87674-2 .
  • A. Lewis: The Psychology of Taxation. Oxford 1982.
  • K. Mackscheidt: The development of the Cologne school of financial psychology. In: C. Smekal, E. Theurl (ed.): Status and development of financial psychology. Baden-Baden 1994, pp. 41-63.
  • G. Schmölders: The Irrational in Public Finance. Problems of Financial Psychology. Hamburg 1960.
  • G. Schmölders: Financial and Tax Psychology. (= Rowohlt's German Encyclopedia. Volume 100/101). Reinbek near Hamburg 1970.
  • G. Wiswede: Psychology of taxation. In: G. Wiswede: Introduction to Business Psychology . Munich / Basel 2000, pp. 158–162.

swell

  1. ↑ G. Wiswede: Psychology of taxation. In: G. Wiswede: Introduction to Business Psychology . Munich / Basel 2000, p. 159.

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