Paying taxes in Euro area countries: issues behind tax morale

Abstract

This article investigates theoretical and practical aspects of tax morale in euro area countries. The attitude of households on tax payment - whether to pay taxes or not - is assessed quantitatively by employing dichotomous logit-probit regression analysis. Research is based on household level data received from World Values Survey and European Values Study. The results suggest that the main issues behind weak tax morale are corruption, disrespect to the country. Additionally tax morale is significantly affected by factors like age, gender, religiousness, gender, income and education. Article concludes on possible policy options in order to increase tax morale.