Lidija Hauptman

The OECD has called for a stronger and more dynamic sustainable tax-paying culture that countries must cultivate and a more robust ethical profile for individual taxpayers. The individual tax culture might vary in the significance attributed to values influencing taxpayers’ perceptions toward taxation. As the hierarchy of values can be influenced through manipulation, policymakers can leverage knowledge of the relationship between higher-order personal values and individual tax culture to enhance tax revenue collection. This study aims to measure the relationship between Schwartz’s higher-order personal values and taxpayers’ culture, assessed through attitudes toward tax evasion, tax compliance, and the tax system. A survey was administered to the Slovene taxpayers (69 accountants and 130 non-accountants). The assumption was that the personal values system of accountants ought to underpin their ethical tax decision-making because of the professional accountants’ ethical codes. As professional accountants play a crucial role in maintaining stability for businesses, they hold a significant position in ensuring the effective operation of taxation systems. Exploratory factor analysis was used, and the analysis was carried out using the principal component method. The findings indicate that some higher-order personal values, particularly self-transcendence (r = 0.244) and self-enhancement (r = –0.403), are significant in explaining ethical behavior. Within the self-enhancement value, power and achievement strongly influence the ethical behavior of accountants. The perception of power associated with their expertise makes accountants less tax-compliant. Conservation values are of greater importance for non-accountants (r = 0.280). The results enhance comprehension of values’ influence on ethical decision processes.

Governments are working toward cultivating a culture of tax compliance, recognizing that taxpayers exhibit diverse motivations for fulfilling their tax obligations, resulting in varying levels of reported tax compliance. This paper aims to investigate behavioral intentions with a specific focus on resistance-cooperation motivational postures and their link with tax compliance (voluntary and enforced) and tax evasion between Slovene taxpayers (n = 390). Inter-item correlations next to descriptive statistical methods were calculated using the PLS-SEM approach to explore the motivational postures, tax compliance, and tax evasion characteristics. The survey has shown that most surveyed Slovene taxpayers tend to agree with motivational postures, voluntary tax compliance, and enforced tax compliance statements. The results indicate that motivational posture deference has positive links with both voluntary tax compliance (r = 0.692, p < 0.001) and enforced tax compliance (r = 0.253, p < 0.001), but a negative link with the attitude toward tax evasion (r = –0.404, p < 0.001). Conversely, motivational posture defiance exhibits a negative link with voluntary tax compliance (r = –0.149, p = 0.006) and a positive link with the attitude toward tax evasion (r = 0.229, p < 0.001). The link between defiance and enforced tax compliance is not statistically significant (r = 0.068, p = 0.379). The results indicate that tax authorities should avoid adopting an antagonistic climate and instead focus on fostering positive tax climates, specifically the service and confidence climates, when implementing tax communication strategies with taxpayers.