Tax culture assessment model ; Mokesčių kultūros vertinimo modelis
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VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY Kristina ŠINKŪNIENö TAX CULTURE ASSESSMENT MODEL Summary of Doctoral Dissertation Social sciences, Economics (04 S) Kaunas, 2009 This dissertation was prepared during the period of 2003–2009 at Vytautas Magnus University Scientific supervisor: Prof., dr. Violeta Pukelien÷ (Vytautas Magnus University, Social Sciences, Economics – 04 S) The dissertation will be defended in the Economics Council of Vytautas Magnus University: Chairman: Prof., habil. dr. Zigmas Lydeka (Vytautas Magnus University, Social Sciences, Economics – 04 S) Members: Prof., habil. dr. Jonas Čepinskis (Vytautas Magnus University, Social Sciences, Economics – 04 S) Prof., habil. dr. Remigijus Čiegis (Vytautas Magnus University, Social Sciences, Economics – 04 S) Assoc. prof., dr. Nerijus Mačiulis (ISM University of Management and Economics, Social Sciences, Management and Administration – 03 S) Prof., dr. Vytautas Snieška (Kaunas University of Technology, Social Sciences, Economics – 04 S) Opponents: Prof., dr. Rasa Kanapickien÷ (Vilnius university Kaunas Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences, Management and Administration – 03 S) Assoc. prof., dr.
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| Publié par | vytautas_magnus_university |
| Publié le | 01 janvier 2010 |
| Nombre de lectures | 40 |
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VYTAUTAS MAGNUS UNIVERSITY KristinaINKŪNIENö
TAX CULTURE ASSESSMENT MODEL
Summary of Doctoral Dissertation Social sciences, Economics (04 S)
Kaunas, 2009
This dissertation was prepared during the period of 20032009 at Vytautas Magnus University Scientific supervisor: Prof., dr. Violeta Pukelien÷ (Vytautas Magnus University, Social Sciences, Economics 04 S) The dissertation will be defended in the Economics Council of Vytautas Magnus University: Chairman: Prof., habil. dr. Zigmas Lydeka (Vytautas Magnus University, Social Sciences, Economics 04 S) Members: Prof., habil. dr. JonasČepinskis (Vytautas Magnus University, Social Sciences, Economics 04 S) Prof., habil. dr. RemigijusČiegis (Vytautas Magnus University, Social Sciences, Economics 04 S) Assoc. prof., dr. Nerijus Mačiulis (ISM University of Management and Economics, Social Sciences, Management and Administration 03 S) Prof., dr. Vytautas Snieka (Kaunas University of Technology, Social Sciences, Economics 04 S) Opponents: Prof., dr. Rasa Kanapickien÷ university Kaunas Faculty of Humanities, (Vilnius Social Sciences, Management and Administration 03S) Assoc. prof., dr. Neringa Stončiuvien÷ (Lithuanian University of Agriculture, Social Sciences, Economics 04 S) The dissertation will be defended in a public session of Economics Science Council of Vytautas Magnus University, held at 12:00 on December 10, 2009, at Vytautas Magnus University, Small Hall. Address: Daukanto g. 28, LT-44246 Kaunas, Lithuania The summary of the doctoral dissertation was sent on November
..., 2009. The dissertation is available for public reading at the Martynas Mavydas National Library of Lithuania (Gedimino av. 51, Vilnius) and the library of Vytautas Magnus University.
VYTAUTO DIDIOJO UNIVERSITETAS KristinaINKŪNIENö
Daktaro disertacijos santrauka Socialiniai mokslai, ekonomika (04 S)
MOKESČIŲKULTŪROS VERTINIMO MODELIS
Kaunas, 2009
Disertacija rengta 20032009 metais Vytauto Didioj universitete. Mokslin÷vadov÷: Prof., dr. Violeta Pukelien÷s,tatesierivuno joidiD otuatyV( slai, iniam kos coaiil ekonomika 04 S) Disertacija ginama Vytauto Didiojo universiteto Ekonomikos mokslo krypties taryboje: Pirmininkas: Prof., habil. dr. Zigmas Lydeka (Vytauto Didiojo universitetas, socialiniai mokslai, ekonomika 04 S) Nariai: Prof., habil. dr. JonasČ iepinskis (Vytauto Didiojo universitetas, socialinai la Pmrookf.s, ih,a ebkilo. ndorm. ikRae mi g0i4j uSs) Čiegis (Vytauto Didiojo universitetas, socialiniai mokslai, ekonomika 04 S) Doc., dr. Nerijus Mačiulis (ISM Vadybos ir ekonomikos universitetas, socialiniai mokslai, vadyba ir administravimas 03 S) Prof., dr. Vytautas Snieka (Kauno technologijos universitetas, socialiniai mokslai, ekonomika 04 S) Oponentai: Prof., dr. Rasa Kanapickien÷ universiteto Kauno humanitarinis (Vilniaus fakultetas, socialiniai mokslai, vadyba ir administravimas 03 S) Doc., dr. Neringa Stončiuvien÷ em (Lietuvos÷sūkio universitetas, socialiniai mokslai, ekonomika 04 S) Disertacija bus ginama vieame Ekonomikos mokslo krypties tarybos pos÷dyje 2009 m. gruodio 10 d. 12:00 val. Vytauto Didiojo univertseito Maojoje sa÷l je. Adresas: Daukanto g. 28, LT-44246 Kaunas. Disertacijos santrauka isiuntin÷ta 2009 m. lapkričio
.. d. Disertaciją galima periūr÷ti nacionalin÷je Martyno Mavydo bibliotekoje (Gedimino pr. 51, Vilnius) ir Vytauto Didiojo universiteto bibliotekoje.
INTRODUCTION Relevance of the topic. the modern world is transforming and changing, theAs State and its financial problems attract more and more attention. Taxes paid by taxpayers constitute a basis for existence of every state (making up around 90% of state’s income) and by distributing appropriations the State is enabled to perform its functions. In forming, allocation, and reallocation of taxes many public figures are involved: politicians, tax administrators, experts, scientists, taxpayers, and recipients of tax resources accumulated by the State. All these groups have their own attitudes on the taxation system and behavior, which is determined by various personal and societal factors. Although many thinkers, philosophers, and public figures believe that payment of taxes is inevitable necessity, a part of the economy always remains unaccounted for. Necessity for and understanding of payment of taxes, as the basis for existence of the State was studied by ancient philosophers, later thinkers and public figures: Aristotle, J.Bodin, A.Richelieu, M.Sulis, A.Montchrestien, W.Petty, F.Kenn, T.Mann, J.B.Colbert, etc. Along with understanding and necessity for payment of taxes, in the 20threlated concepts of tax morality, tax mentality, and tax discipline century closely appear and are studied by G.Schmölders, K.Schnelle, B.Strümpel, B.Beichelt, etc. In the 20th-21st century these concepts are being replaced by a conceptually new term oftax culture, uniting the individual, the collective and the national levels. It is timely and allows explanation in the new context of the idea of the State, the principle of solidarity, on the basis of which funds are reallocated from the rich to the poor, from the working to those who are not able to receive income for objective reasons, and from the young to the seniors (realizing the idea of intergenerational assistance). The State pursuing humanism must take responsibility and protect people from consequences of social risk. Tax culture is not an artificial combination of words, but has a conceptual meaning base. According to G.W.F.Hegel (Berinskas, 2004),in the mind of the society culture and its values exist as a knowledge without experience, which means that it is learned and later its application does not require any effort. This is closely related to the concept of tax culture as a part of national culture. Consideration of the relevance and applicability of the Tax Culture Assessment Model requires presentation of the notion of tax culture, which isthe totality of taxation relationship formed in national culture, aiming to optimize tax income and representing a synthesis of attitudes and behaviors of
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participants in the tax system. Thus, the tax culture is not identical to the tax system, but the latter is an important part of the tax culture. Being one of the elements of the tax culture, the tax system is more changeable than the tax culture, which encompasses a wider range of values, beliefs, and established models of behavior of participants of the tax system. The concept of tax culture has not yet been caught on and found a field of use in either Lithuania or other countries. Thus, in order to use it in discussions and in search for the scope of its application it is necessary to produce a clearer definition of this concept. Such a definition is presented in this dissertation on the basis of analysis of the evolution of the concept and the background of tax culture. Furthermore, there are no scientific studies systematizing the main factors affecting tax culture and assessment of the tax culture as a totality of attitude and behavior. This allows substantiation of methodological assumptions of such assessment in the present study and provides for a wider and deeper understanding of national (international) practical taxation relationships and their problems, as well as for formation of principles required for implementation of an effective tax system in the country. Tax system as well as economy of a country is not valuable in itself, but only insofar it assists in timely implementation of political, economical, and social purposes of the State and expectations of people. A significant part of possible purposes of the State and expectations of people are linked to effective tax system. Understanding of tax relations, which constitute the basis of the tax culture, not only as obligations, but also in a wider sense, is valuable for their development under complex conditions of globalization and integration. Attempts to create a more effective tax system require not only legal measures, but also clearest possible knowledge of attitudes and behavior of each taxpayer (or a group thereof) in relation to this process. Solutions based on tax culture may assist smoother solutions for multifaceted taxing problems of the state and support the foundations of the State. According to Professor V.Jurgutis (1938), it is important that allocation of the vast tax resources accumulated in the hands of the State by means of tax regulations is based on the principle of the value of a person and common good. The processes of the global economic crisis and its effects affecting the whole life of the State, including the tax system, require examination of their influence on changes in tax culture. According to the author of the present dissertation, this problem
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is being addressed in all four stages of the Tax Culture Assessment Model presented here starting from specification of factors determining tax culture, identification of priorities of the factors, and finishing with formulation and verification of a mathematical model, which may be adjusted to take into account changing circumstances. Almost 50 years ago anthropologist K.Oberg (1960) used the termtax culture shockto describe the situation of tax culture in a time of crisis. Such a shock takes place when two different tax cultures collide (there is a push from outside and local officials give in to such inducement and proceed with expedition to make changes in a tax system of a country). Such measures evoke feelings of insecurity and dissatisfaction in tax system participants and recipients of the public good. When various parts of the tax culture change at uneven rates,tax culture lag emerge and many social problems arise during the adjustment period. Tax culture shocks and lags are seen clearly in the countries with developing economies as well as during economic crises; however, by taking collective responsibility tax system participants and recipients of the public good may mitigate effects of these phenomena (Nerre, 2001). The need to evaluate the tax culture arises from the desire to establish its level and to evaluate possibilities for its formation. Thus, at the time of crisis the importance and applicability of the Tax Culture Assessment Model aiming to be a universal does not diminish, but even increases. Furthermore, in the course of validation of the tax culture assessment method it has been found that the level of tax culture was changing along with social, economical, and political circumstances and the model indicated its changes determined by the aforementioned factors. Thus, the Tax Culture Assessment Model or its individual stages may be used by tax system participants of any country, particularly politicians and tax administrators, who bear the biggest responsibility for formulation and application of guidelines for national tax system and tax culture. Interdisciplinary nature of the scientific study. Interface of various disciplines has been analyzed for a long time. Aristotle related the origins of the economics theory to technique and ethics (Berinskas, 2004, etc.). G.Berinskas sees a very strong connection between economic phenomena and moral bases, stating that economic, as well as moral and ethical development not only affects, but also determines each other, while undervaluation of any of them paralyses the other and
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faster economic development is hardly possible, or even completely unfeasible without nurturance of the moral culture. E.Laumenskait÷ (2001) concludes in her paper that economics is uncontrollable without ethics. Therfeore importance of morality not only for personal development, but for societal development as well is emphasized in social thinking of authors belonging to various ages. As the concept of culture gains increasingly strong foothold in social sciences, in scientific works we often find such concepts as political culture (Tretter, 1974, Mik÷nien÷, 2003), marketing culture (ostautien÷, Urbanskien÷, 2002, ostautien÷, Valackien÷, 2004), and management culture (Grigas, 1998, imanskien÷, 2000, J÷čiuvien÷, 2001). Multidisciplinary nature (economics, sociology, history, culture) of the tax culture is emphasized by B.Nerre (2001). Furthermore, deductive analysis of the tax culture conducted on the basis of the Classification of Science Fields, Areas, and Branches (V, 103-2598) valid in both Lithuania and the EU indicates that apart from the aforementioned areas the tax culture encompasses the disciplines of philosophy and management. This indicates that culture and its values are important in the life of the state and particularly in the tax system, under requirements of which huge flows of monetary resources of country’s taxpayers are reallocated. Thus, the topic of tax culture is multifaceted and there is a lot of room for reasoning and assessments. Corresponding member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences Professor R.Grigas states that in contrast to natural and particularly exact sciences, emphatic assertions concerning the social world are unacceptable on principle. Here a researcher has a right to a certain degree of subjectivity at least because causality of social facts and phenomena is multifaceted (Rakauskien÷, 2006, p.12) Object of the research tax culture and its assessment. Limitations of the study to achieve the purpose of the dissertation, the study is focused on the tax culture and its assessment. Relationship between the tax culture and macroeconomic indicators is not analyzed. Scientific problem and its investigation level. Similarly to other countries, the tax culture in Lithuania is a new and little researched phenomenon. Though the concept of tax culture was used by F.Meisels (1926) over 80 years ago, its definition has not been clearly formulated. In many cases the tax culture has been analyzed only from the point of view of onlyattitudesor onlybehaviorsof tax system participants (taxpayers, tax administrators, politicians, experts, and scientists). Thefirstaspect of the tax culture
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was studied by G.Boos, M.Mishustin, G.Gref (Nerre, 2001), V.Tanzi (2000), A.Mette (2003), etc. Thebehavioral aspect of the tax culture was analyzed by F.M.Hartmann, U.Hübner (1997), R.Berger (1998), J.Martines-Vazquez, R.M.McNab (2000), J.Martinez-Vazquez, S.Wallace (2000), B.Nerre (2000, 2001, 2001a, 2001b, 2004), etc. In some casesbothculture were analyzed by J.A.Schumpeter (1929),aspects of the tax A.Spitaler (1954), A.Pausch (1992), M.Camdesus (1997), L.E.Combest (1997), etc.; however, not always all groups of tax system participants, whose actions provide a basis for the concept of tax culture, were included. Indeed, it is the person and not the system, who is the most important to the tax culture. It may be stated thatanalysis of tax culture has been one-sidedpoint of view of attitudes or behaviors of tax system: only from the participants, without covering all groups of tax system participants. As it comes to the Lithuanian literature, though E.Laumenskait÷ (2001), G.Berinskas (2002, 2004), and J.Baltruaitis (2008) started looking for links between economics and culture, a more consistent and systematic identification and use of the concept of tax culture is found in works of B.Jurgelevičien÷ (2005), V.Pukelien÷ and K.Leviauskai (2005),÷t (2006), which indicates that the concept of tax culture and beginnings of assessment are forming in Lithuania as well. Tax culture exists mostly on the conceptual level;there is no accepted scientific research method, on the basis of which tax culture could be evaluated. In a search for possibilities for assessment of tax culture the principle of analogy was used. In foreign scientific literature the tax culture is assigned to the area of psychology of finance, thus literature sources studying the same object as tax culture, i.e. tax morality and tax mentality, were analyzed. Research in these fields was conducted by J.Alm, G.H.McClelland, and W.D.Schulze (1992), B.Torgler (2003), B.Beichelt (1968), H.Dawar (1961), H.Karamete (1956), G.Schmölders and B.Strümpel (1968), B.Tretter (1974), H.Weck (1983), etc.; however, studies conducted by these authors are fragmentary in nature and do not sufficiently reflect the concept and composition of tax culture as a whole, thus assessment of tax culture remains a relevant scientific problem. Therefore, tax culture and the problems of its assessment have not been studied sufficiently, there are no systematized methodical provisions for scientific research on this topic; consequently, systemic analysis of the concept of tax culture, examination of possibilities for its assessment, development of a method, and its validation under real
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conditions constitute relevant scientific and practical objectives. The scientific problem is revealed in the following questions: 1. What are the most important factors in the tax culture, which determine behavior and attitudes of tax system participants with the regard to taxation and changes therein? 2. What indicators or a single index may be used to evaluate tax culture? The aim of the research to specify the conception of tax culture, to identify the factors affecting it, to draw a model for assessment of tax culture and to validate it on the example of EU countries. The objectives of the research: ·To analyze links between taxes and culture and to substantiate the importance of tax culture research. · specify the conception of tax culture, to describe the background of its formationTo and possible interpretations. · To identify and evaluate factors determining tax culture and to systematize them. To analyze macroeconomic indicators of taxes in the context of tax culture in order · to identify possibilities for assessment of tax culture. To conduct a Lithuanian taxpayers’ opinion survey in order to specify factors · determining the tax culture, to identify the key factors, and to substantiate the conception of tax culture. · To draw a tax culture assessment model on the basis of the theoretical assumptions of tax culture, the identified factors determining tax culture, their indicators, and results of the Lithuanian taxpayers’ opinion survey. · Having evaluated the indicators reflecting factors determining tax culture, to use the research method of expert survey to calculate weight coefficients of factors and factor clusters affecting tax culture and to develop a mathematical model for assessment of tax culture. · the Tax Culture Assessment Model on example of EU countries.To validate · the Tax Culture Indexes of EU countries and toTo conduct systemic analysis of substantiate universal Tax Culture Assessment Model.
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Identification of links between taxes and culture anal sis of the tax s stem in the context of culture
Systemic analysis of the conception of tax culture and substantiation of the reconditions for its formation
Identification of tax culture assessment possibilities
Lithuanian taxpaye ’ opi ion survey: rs n · Substantiation of the conception of tax culture; · Determination of key factors affecting the tax culture.
Development of the Tax Culture Assessment Model
Substantiation of the factors affecting the tax culture and of indicators reflectin those factors
Expert study to determine significance of the factors affectin the tax culture
Development of the mathematical Tax Culture Assessment Model
Validation of the Tax Culture Assessment Model on examples of the EU countries
Adjustment of the Tax Culture Assessment Model
Substantiation of the universal Tax Culture Assessment Model
Figure 1. Logical structure of the dissertation The logical structure of the dissertation. The objectives formulated in order to achieve the purpose of the dissertation study are presented in greater detail in the logical structure of the dissertation (Fig. 1). To justify the importance of tax culture research,
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