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Understanding Taxpaying Behavior: A Conceptual Framework with Implications for Research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Kent W. Smith  and
Karyl A. Kinsey
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Abstract

Taxpaying is a primary nexus between individual and state, and tax laws are exemplar of purposive administrative law. Our framework for research on taxpaying emphasizes that compliance is as problematic as noncompliance, that individuals have different opportunities for both compliance and noncompliance, and that taxpaying does not necessarily involve deliberate decisions. Both the process of decision making and the content of decisions must be studied. Four clusters of factors affecting the content of compliance decisions are material consequences, normative expectations, sociolegal attitudes and beliefs, and expressive factors. How individuals subjectively “frame” the factors depends upon their social situations. The framework has several implications for research on tax noncompliance.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , 1987 , pp. 639 - 663
Copyright
Copyright © 1987 The Law and Society Association.

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Footnotes

This paper is part of the research program of the American Bar Foundation's Taxpayer Compliance Project. The project is funded through contributions of tax practitioners, law firms, corporations, foundations, and associations, including major grants by the American Bar Association's Section of Taxation; the Gibbs Brothers, Starr, and Joyce Foundations; and General Motors. We are grateful to two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and suggestions. The analyses, conclusions, and opinions expressed are those of the authors and not of the American Bar Foundation, its officers, or directors.

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