The Ethics of Tax Evasion: An Empirical Study of New Zealand Opinion

Abstract

The present study discloses the results of a survey on the ethics of tax evasion that was distributed to accounting, business and law students in New Zealand. Eighteen arguments that have historically been used to justify tax evasion were ranked in terms of relative strength. Analyses were done by gender, age, education, religion and ethnicity to determine whether different groups had different views on tax evasion.

Keywords: ethics, tax evasion, New Zealand, gender, age, student status, major, ethnicity, religion

JEL Classification: H26, E62, J16, J14, J1, K34, K42, M14, M4, O53, O56