Tax morale in Latin America

Abstract

In the tax compliance literature, we observe a lack of empirical evidence on the degree of tax morale in developing countries. Thus, our paper as a novelty focuses on Latin America, analysing tax morale as dependent variable and searching for factors that systematically affect tax morale, working with the two data sets Latinobarómetro and World Values Survey. Our findings indicate that there is a significant correlation between tax morale and the size of shadow economy. Furthermore, people who said they knew/have heard about practised tax avoidance have a significant lower tax morale than others. Looking at individuals perception of reasons for tax evasion we found that the tax burden, lacking honesty, and corruption are seen as the main factors. We observed a significantly lower tax morale in South America/Mexico than in the Central America/Caribbean area. Furthermore, trust in the president and the officials, the belief that other individuals obey the law and a pro democratic attitude have a significant positive effect on tax morale.