Tax Evasion as a Crime : A Survey of Perception in Bosnia and Herzegovina

Tax evasion and the perception about it are broadly discussed issues nowadays and they have revived a lot of debates among ethics analysts or government representatives and business executives or proprietors.This paper explores the perception of Bosnian and Herzegovinian (BH) citizens of the severity of tax evasion relative to other crimes and abuses. Perception of tax evasion may somewhat clarify the degree of rebelliousness with the tax laws. Using data from a self- administered survey, the results of mean and comparative analysis will be examined to show where the tax evasion is ranked in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the list of fifty listed crimes. There is a lack of research which deals with the topic of the perception of tax evasion by Bosnian and Herzegovinian citizens. Moreover, as suggested by Andreoni et al. (1998) there is a huge gap and thus a permanent need for international and cross country research on tax evasion; while the work in the context of transition countries is still less developed. This paper aims to reduce this gap by introducing some findings for businesses and tax policymakers.The results of this study should be useful to business and government representatives in BH and elsewhere in the Balkans or wider