Gender, Age and the Ethics of Tax Evasion

The ethics of tax evasion has been discussed sporadically in the theological and philosophical literature for at least 500 years. Martin Crowe wrote a doctoral thesis that reviewed much of that literature in 1944. The debate revolved around about 15 issues. Over the centuries, three main views evolved on the topic. This paper begins with a review of the literature and identifies the main issues and summarizes the three main viewpoints that have emerged over the centuries. It then reports on the results of a series of surveys where participants were asked to give their opinions of various arguments that have been used to justify tax evasion over the centuries using a seven-point Likert Scale. Results were analyzed by gender. The paper then examines the data showing the relationship between gender and views of tax evasion that was gathered as part of a much larger study of values and beliefs, then goes on to summarize the studies that have examined the relationship between age and opinions on the ethics of tax evasion. This paper also lists more than 60 studies that have examined male and female opinion on a variety of other ethical issues. The original Working Paper has been updated to include a bibliography of more than 80 tax evasion studies and links to most of those studies