JESR2019112391247
JESR2019112391247
JESR2019112391247
5, 2019, 1239-1247
Abstract. Financial and tax policies through the correction and stabilization of
economic activity in various sectors to finance not only the government but also to
the growth and economic development. In recent years, the link between ethics and
tax evasion has become an attractive topic for economic researchers. Most tax
evasion studies have often focused on economics or public taxation, and few studies
have examined the ethics of tax evasion. This article is an applied research with a
descriptive and correlational type. The statistical population of this research is the
selected industry managers and the statistical sample is 291 people that were
calculated by Cochran's formula. The data collection tool is a three-part
questionnaire with 5-point Likert scale. The validity of the questionnaire was
confirmed by experts and the reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by
Cronbach's alpha. The results showed that four dimensions of moral intelligence and
social responsibility were positively and meaningfully correlated with a lack of tax
evasion attitude.
Keywords: Moral Intelligence, Social Responsibility, Tax Evasion
INTRODUCTION
Some people, for various reasons, hide their tax evasion and real income from tax
agents. Providing correct answers for these reasons can solve many of the problems
of the tax system that are rooted in the general culture of society. On the other hand,
in recent years, due to the economic sanctions and the sharp drop in oil prices, the
government has been focusing heavily on taxation and relief from oil revenues and
reliance on the manufacturing sector. One of the best and least costly methods of
taxation is to promote voluntary tax compliance, which can be achieved by
developing or promoting tax ethics. Therefore, providing an appropriate index for
tax ethics based on the factors influencing it, is very important and most studies in
this field have rarely addressed indexing of tax ethics. The origins of taxation dates
back to centuries ago, but the phenomenon of tax evasion has only attracted
economic theorists for four decades. More studies on tax evasion are published in
applied journals and often legal or practical aspects of it are examined but some
studies have explored this concept philosophically as well as psychologically. An
example is the comprehensive analysis of the tax evasion by Martin Crowe in 1944.
After the publication of Tax Escape Ethics by McGee (1998) and the study of tax
evasion from a religious, secular, and philosophical perspective, other issues such as
ethics of tax evasion were also raised. Investigating the factors affecting
inappropriate behavior is one of the most important challenges for researchers in this
field. Understanding these factors is crucial for designing tax evasion models.
In recent years, the debate revolving around Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
has grown in importance, which is nowadays considered as a top priority for
companies. In response to the increasing importance of CSR, several scholars have
examined the relationship of CSR with various variables. Previous research has
shown that CSR directly or indirectly influences consumer response and perceptions
of the product and of the company. Positive consumer perceptions of CSR activities
lead to a favorable evaluation and a positive attitude towards the company (Luo &
Bhattacharya, 2006).
The concept of CSR has become the dominant paradigm of corporate governance in
the last decade, and large and reputable global corporations view CSR and the social
1
Master of Science in Financial Management, Kharazmi University
[email protected]
RESEARCH LITERATURE
Since the relationship between social, political, environmental, economic roles in
commerce has increased, organizations have faced new dynamics. The challenge
that organizations face is that they must simultaneously achieve profitability and
respond to new social expectations and then manage these seemingly contradictory
consequences simultaneously. Implementing social responsibility at the organization
level is one of the effective mechanisms or strategies in this regard (Mortazawi et al,
2010).
CSR means working well and doing well. The globalization of the economy has led
companies to incorporate social values and mission into their decisions in order to
achieve sustainable and positive outcomes in business, the environment and society
at large (Kell, 2005). CSR includes corporate management's response to the legal,
ethical, social and environmental expectations of stakeholders. Different theories
have been proposed in determining the extent of corporate responsibility (Lantos,
2001). CSR is a concept that is not defined as acceptable to everyone (Freeman &
Hasnaou, 2011).
Some take the meaning of commitment as legal responsibility, and some consider it
to be socially responsible behavior in terms of ethical issues. For others, it means
being responsible or equivalent to charity, while others see it as social awareness,
Many who eagerly accept the concept of legitimacy and acceptance and few see it as
a task entrusted with applying higher standards of conduct to businesses, traders and
craftsmen. CSR has had a positive impact on the business and operations of
organizations, by regulating the framework, the effectiveness of judicial systems, the
effectiveness of accounting principles and reporting standards, and the reduction of
commercial and corporate corruption. Determinants of social responsibility strategy
for organizations, consumers, investors, suppliers, employees, corporate
communications and local communities and the world, governments and non-
governmental organizations and non-profits that share respectively in the
organization, 75 percent of employees, 66% are consumers and 59% are local
communities (Chavshbashy, 2010).
There is generally no general framework for pursuing CSR. Each company has its
own unique characteristics that influence views on how social responsibility
strategies work and explain. The move to institutionalize CSR in corporate
governance should be aligned with the corporate culture, vision, and long-term
strategies of the corporation, so that the implementation of social responsibility
programs is not seen as a cost plan by employees and shareholders (Pakravan,
2012). According to Carroll's pyramid, social responsibility has four dimensions:
Ethical dimension: Organizations are expected to respect people's values, norms, and
beliefs, as well as other members of society, and to consider ethical values in their
work and activities. In other words, the moral dimension deals with extracurricular
issues that are valued by the community (Royai & mehrdost, 2010). Crane and
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Matten (2007) consider business ethics not only in business organizations but also in
nonprofits as a study of the ethical decisions that individuals make in different
situations and activities. According to them, the economic aspect of decisions is not
considered and only the moral aspect is emphasized (Crane & Matten, 2007).
Legal Dimension: After the economic aspect, the second dimension of social
responsibility is the legal dimension, and organizations consider themselves
responsible for acting within the framework of general laws and regulations. Society
sets these rules and all organizations are required to respect these rules as a social
value. The legal dimension is also called social responsibility or social obligation
(Royai & mehrdost, 2010).
Economic Dimension: Historically and also in today's world, the most important
aspect of CSR is the economic dimension in which all the economic activities of the
organization are considered. In other words, the primary responsibility of any
business is to make a profit. Once an organization achieves the necessary benefits
and guarantees its life, it can take on other responsibilities, in other words, the
primary goals of the organization in this dimension (Royai & mehrdost, 2010).
Charitable activities: Corporate charitable activities have existed long before CSR
issues emerged. Decades ago leaders like Henry Ford and Dale Carnegie donated a
large amount of their personal capital to charities and devoted nearly 5% of their
income to educational development (Akinyomi, 2013). There is a distinction
between ethical norms embedded in economic activity and ethical responsibilities.
From his point of view, ethical norms related to issues such as justice and
impartiality in the organization's activities. However, ethical responsibilities include
things that are not directly in the law and only in the expectations that society has of
the organization. Noting that changes in ethical norms and values always require
new laws and regulations, he sees change as the main source of lawmaking in
organizations (Carroll, 2008).
Another part of the economic dimension is to secure the interest of the stakeholders
and defend the value of their share in the stock market. In many ways, the economic
dimension is the core of an organization's activities. The economic dimension affects
the organization by affecting the profit and equity of stakeholders, employees,
suppliers, and competitors (Rahim et al., 2011). Kanchius (2006) considers the legal
dimension as the sustainability of an organization's responsibility towards
consumers, employees, and compliance with national and competitive laws.
Although the legal dimension covers a large part of social responsibility, it still
seems inadequate. Since laws and regulations only reflect the views of the legislator,
the legal dimension alone cannot cover all the issues that arise for the organization
(Brimah et al. 2013). Researchers define four essential components of moral
intelligence and consider them essential for sustained organizational and personal
success. These are integrity, responsibility, compassion, forgiveness.
1- Integrity - that is, creating harmony between what we believe in and what we do.
Doing what we know is right and saying the right thing at all times. A person with
high moral intelligence acts in a way that is consistent with his principles and
beliefs. Righteousness is about creating harmony between what one believes in and
what one does.
2. Responsibility: The person with high moral intelligence accepts responsibility for
the actions and consequences of their actions, as well as their mistakes and failures.
3. Compassion: Paying attention to others without interference; If we were kind and
compassionate towards others, they would also sympathize with us when needed and
would be sympathetic to the concept of active care for others.
4- Forgiveness: Being aware of one's own imperfections and tolerating the mistakes
of others. Forgiveness involves understanding one's own spiritual needs and
forgetting one's own mistakes, as well as understanding one's feelings and forgetting
one's mistakes (Lotfabadi, 2005).
Cummings et al. (2009) showed that simultaneous use of survey data as well as
experimental data is effective in identifying tax compliance behavior. The results of
their study showed that tax ethics promotes compliance, while the quality of
governance has a significant effect on tax compliance. This concept was also
endorsed by Turgler (2010). They also showed that tax ethics and social institutions
had a significant effect on the level of tax evasion. Hague and Spore (2011) study a
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study of trust, ethics, and tax commitment and tax evasion in countries involved in
the transition from socialist rule to democracy and market economy. These countries
have often faced the challenge of strengthening their tax commitment and ethics and
reducing tax evasion. On the other hand, tax evasion and undermined the capacity of
these countries to reform a vicious circle of motivated citizens to pay taxes arises.
Theoretical analysis and empirical evidence provided suggest that the direct impact
of people's views on policy issues, especially on tax matters, can help to reinforce
ethics, commitment, and tax acceptance. In particular, the possibility of a
referendum boosts citizens' confidence in ethics and tax liability and then public
acceptance of the tax and reduction of tax evasion will be affected by the institutions
formed in society. Cerquetti and Cooper (2011) show that in countries with more
honest people, tax rate changes have a greater impact on economic growth because
in these countries the tax rates set in practice are also collected. While in countries
with low shame, such as greater tax avoidance, tax rate changes have less impact on
economic growth. Muehlheusser et al. (2015) examined gender differences as well
as group-individual differences in honesty. Their purpose was to gain insight into
the individual's and group's immoral behavior and the role of gender in it. Contrary
to individual decisions, gender plays an important role in group decisions, and their
results show that masculine and mixed groups are more likely to lie than feminine.
Torgler and Murphy (2004) first examined tax ethics using statistical analysis in
Australia and using the World Values Survey Center (WVS) data from 1981 to
1995. Their findings showed that much of the ethics stemmed from the formation of
trust (in the Majlis) and a high sense of moral commitment from religion. Their
findings also showed that the status of Australian taxation ethics has improved over
the years, especially as a result of the 1985 tax reform and the improvement of
public administration and the self-assessment process. Picur et al, (2006) emphasize
the impact of bureaucracy and corruption on tax compliance. This empirical study
used data from 30 developed and developing countries and found that tax
compliance had a negative relationship with the level of democracy and a positive
relationship with successful control of corruption. Given the unexpected results of
the research, they suggest that countries should reduce the level of corruption and
bureaucracy in order to improve tax ethics to increase tax compliance. There has
been little internal research into the tax ethics, For example, Rezaei et al. (2010)
examined different aspects of tax compliance, the status of the Iranian tax system in
this regard, and the experiences of different countries on tax compliance and its
effects in different dimensions. Finally, they have provided policy recommendations
to reform the country's tax system to increase tax compliance. Heidari (2014)
examines the factors influencing tax ethics and its impact on tax compliance using a
survey of taxpayers in Isfahan. His results showed that variables of attitude toward
tax evasion, social norms and trust in government and tax, legal and judicial system
had a positive and significant effect on ethics. Of the demographic variables, only
the age of the midwives has a significant positive effect on tax compliance. Haj
Mohammadi and Mohammad Aghaei (2011) in a library research format, while
briefly reviewing the factors affecting tax compliance and the key components of the
MFI approach, they have emphasized the need for a close link between voluntary
compliance, service delivery, and information technology implementation. In their
conclusion, they concluded that in designing a cost-effective tax system, a close link
between voluntary self-reporting, customer service, and deployment of new
information technology products is inevitable. Ideally identifying different consumer
needs and producing products tailored to those needs, paying attention to ethical
performance in management decisions, striving to create safe and healthy
workplaces and a favorable organizational culture as well as responding to the
demands of social organizations by corporations, they are among the important
issues in the area of social responsibility (Rigoberto, 2009).
The results showed that CSR had a positive and direct effect on perceived service
quality and satisfaction. The results also showed the positive effect of satisfaction on
behavioral loyalty and attitude of bank customers. The results showed that doing
social responsibility activities can have a positive effect on company image (Vazife
dost et al, 2014).
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Research has shown that among the four dimensions of Carol's responsibility
pyramid, the three economic, legal, and ethical dimensions influence the loyalty of
distribution agents, but the humanitarian dimension did not show a significant effect
on loyalty. According to the findings of the study can be stated that corporate
activity in these three dimensions of social responsibility is one of the factors that
can make a company customer into a loyal customer and thereby bring benefits to
customers and sports companies (khalili, 2011).
RESEARCH METHOD
The present study is a descriptive survey in terms of data collection and from the
point of view of the type of applied research. The statistical population of this study
was managers of different industries that sampling was done by a simple random
method. The sample group is a small set of statistical population, including some
members selected from the statistical population and the researcher is able to
generalize the result to the entire statistical population (Sakaran, 2005). The Tax
Avoidance Attitude Questionnaire consisted of eighteen standard questions (McGee
& Neurons, 2008), a moral intelligence questionnaire containing forty standard
questions (Lennick & Kiel, 2012) and the third part consisted of 20 questions on
social responsibility. The questionnaire measures four dimensions of moral
intelligence (honesty, responsibility, compassion, and forgiveness) and the four
dimensions of social responsibility questionnaire (economic commitment, legal
obligation, ethical commitment, and social commitment). The validity of the
questionnaire was confirmed by experts. The reliability of the questionnaire was
confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 87 percent.
ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS
Of the 291 participants, 55% had a bachelor's degree, 32% a master's degree, and
13% had a doctorate degree. 48% were women and 52% were men. 18% of the
participants were in the age range of 25-30 years, 45% were in the age range of 30-
35 years, 30% were in the age range of 35-40 and 7% were over 40 years.
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Considering the significance level and the coefficient t, we conclude that the null
hypothesis is rejected and the mean social responsibility is not equal to 3. Since the
upper limit is negative and the lower limit is negative, we conclude that the average
social responsibility dimension is lower than the test value of three.
Since the lower limit is a positive number and the upper limit is also a positive
number, and considering the significance level of zero (less than 5%) and the T
coefficient, we conclude that the null hypothesis is rejected and the average lack of
tax evasion attitude. Not equal to 3. We conclude that the average of the lack of tax
evasion attitude is greater than the test value of three. This test was performed at
95% confidence level. The numerical value of the test is 3.
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Considering that the significance level of the test is less than 0.05 and considering
the correlation coefficient, there is a positive and significant relationship between
the four dimensions and lack of tax evasion attitude. The most numerical value of
this relationship is with the dimension of righteousness and sympathy with the
empowerment dimension of managers.
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CONCLUSION
So far, no research has been conducted on moral intelligence, social responsibility,
and tax evasion and much of the research has been done on other topics and with a
narrower statistical population. In this study, a positive and significant relationship
between dimensions of moral intelligence and social responsibility with a lack of tax
evasion attitude was confirmed; and the direct and positive effect of three
dimensions of moral intelligence and social responsibility on tax attitude was
confirmed by the regression test. The results of Royaie et al. (2013), Sidani et al.
(2014) and Ismail (2014) indicate that there is no significant relationship between
idealism and tax evasion attitude. Bani Mahd & Herchegani's (2012) study showed
that there is no statistically significant relationship between ethical orientation and
auditors' tendency to immoral intentions when faced with ethical dilemmas. There is
also no relationship between financial managers' belief in ethics and acceptance of
social responsibility and their opposition to tax evasion programs. According to the
findings of the study, it is suggested to increase the tax compliance of managers and
payers, with the help of experienced and proficient professors in the concepts of
professional ethics, while restructuring in-service courses, increasing ethical level
and reducing behavioral damages. Of course, the effectiveness of this educational
approach requires continuous ethical training and accountability in organizations to
transform the scientific findings produced in this research into the organizational
culture of employees. Also, the appointment of people with an idealistic and ethical
commitment to critical positions such as financial managers can be effective in
reducing this unethical phenomenon. In the field of future research, it is
recommended that researchers investigate the relationship between the philosophy
of individual ethics and tax avoidance as well as the relationship between individual
personality and tax evasion.
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