ISSN: 2222-6990
Open access
Taxpayer compliance has always been of great importance to the revenue authorities. To comprehend and understand the complex issue surrounding compliance behaviour and its inherent moral dilemmas, taxpayer ethics needs to be understood. Prior literature showed that tax researchers are increasingly seeking to include ethics as one of the variables in the study of tax compliance behaviour. However there are different schools of thought as to whether general ethical beliefs or the specific tax ethical belief is more appropriate to the tax moral dilemma. The present study fills the gap from the literature through investigating both the effect of general ethical value (Machiavellianism) and tax ethical value towards tax compliance behaviour. A set of questionnaire was distributed to taxpayers in some public and private organizations. These preliminary findings reveal that Machiavellian respondents judged underreporting income as less unethical than Nonmachivellian respondents. Respondents who chose not to report (not comply) their income were less ethical. Results showed that there is a significant relationship between Machiavellianism and compliance behaviour. However it appears that there is no significant relationship between tax ethical beliefs and compliance behaviour.
Allingham, M. G., & Sandmo, A. (1972), Income tax evasion: A theoretical analysis. Journal of Public Economics, 323-338.
Alm, J. (1991), A perspective on the experimental analysis of taxpayer reporting. The Accounting Review, 66(3), 577-593.
Alm, J., McClelland, G. H., & Schultze, W. D. (1999), Changing social norms of tax compliance by voting. KYKLOS, 52(2), 141-171.
Bobek, D. D., & Hatfield, R. C. (2003), An investigation of the theory of planned behaviour and the role of moral obligation in tax compliance. Behavioural Research in Accounting, 15, 13-38.
Bobek, D. D., Roberts, R. W., & Sweeney, J. T. (2007), The social norms of tax compliance: Evidence from Australia, Singapore and the United States. Journal of Business Ethics, 74, 49-64.
Bodey, K., & Grace, D. (2004), Examining self-monitoring, perceived control, self-efficacy and Machiavellianism in the context of complaint behaviour. Marketing Accountabilities and responsibilities. Australian & New Zealand Marketing Academy.
Carroll, J. S. (1987), Compliance with the law: A decision-making approachto taxpaying. Law and Human Behaviour, 11(4), 319-335.
Chan, C. W., Troutman, C. S., & O'Bryan, D. (2000), An expanded model of taxpayer compliance: Empirical evidence from the United States and Hong Kong. Journal of International Accounting, Auditing & Taxation, 9(2), 83-103.
Choong, K. F. (2008), Malaysian Taxation: Principles and practice (14 ed.). Malaysia: Infoworld.
Christie, R., & Geis, F. L. (1970), Studies in Machiavellianism. New York: Academic Press.
Cowell, F. A. (1985), The economic analysis of tax evasion. Bulletin of Economic Research, 37, 163-193.
Cuccia, A. D. (1994), The economics of tax compliance: What do we know and where do we go? Journal of Accounting Literature, 13, 81-103.
Darwish, S., Alzayed, S., & Ahmed, U. (2020). How Women in Science can Boost Women’s Entrepreneurship: Review and Highlights. International Journal of Innovation Creativity and Change, 14(1), 453-470.
Erard, B., & Feinstein, J. S. (1994), Honesty and evasion in the tax compliance game. RAND Journal of Economics, 25(1 Spring), 1-19.
Geis, F., Weinheimer, S., & Berger, D. (1970), Playing legislature: cool heads and hot issues. In R. Christie, & F. L. Geis, Studies in Machiavellianism (pp. 190-209). New York: Academic Press.
Ghosh, D., & Crain, T. L. (1995), Ethical standards, attitudes toward risk, and intentional noncompliance: An experimental investigation. Journal of Business Ethics, 14(5), 353-365.
Hanefah, M. M. (2007), Tax systems taxpayer: Compliance and specific tax issues. Sintok: Universiti Utara Malaysia Press.
Hanno, D. M., & Violette, G. R. (1996), An analysis of moral and social influences of taxpayer behaviour. Behavioural Research in Accounting, 8, 57-74.
Henderson, C., & Kaplan, S. E. (2005), An examination of the role of ethics in tax compliance decisions. JATA, 27(1), 39-72.
Ho, D., & Wong, B. (2006), An exploratory study of personal tax ethics in Hong Kong. The International Tax Journal, 32(2), 31-43.
Ho, D., & Wong, B. (2008), Issues on complianceand ethics in taxation: What do we know? Journal of Financial Crime, 15(4), 369-382.
Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia. (2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006 & 2007), Annual Report.Retrieved on 2008, from http://www.hasil.org.my
Jackson, B. R., & Milliron, V. C. (1986), Tax compliance research: Findings, problems and prospects. Journal of Accounting Literature, 5, 125-165.
James, S., & Alley, C. (2002), Tax compliance, self-assessment and tax administration. Journal of Finance and Management in Public Services, 2, 27-42.
Kaplan, S. E., & Reckers, M. J. (1985), A study of tax evasion judgments. National Tax Journal(March), 97-102.
Kaplan, S. E., Newberry, K. J., & Reckers, P. M. (1997), The effect of moral reasoning and educational communications on tax evasion intentions. JATA, 19(2), 38-54.
Kaplan, S. E., Reckers, M. J., & Roark, S. J. (1988), An attribution theory analysis of tax evasion related judgments. Accounting, Organizations & Society, 13(4), 371-379.
Kinsey, K. (1986), Theories and models of tax cheating. Criminal Justice, 403-425.
Kirchler, E. (2007), The economic psychology of tax behaviour. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kohlberg, L. (1969), Stages and sequences: The cognitive development approach to socialization. In Handbook of Socialization Theory and Research (pp. 347-480). Chicago: Rand McNally.
Long, D. K. (1976), An experimental investigation of selected communication effect of Machiavellianism. Speech Communication Association Convention.
McLaughlin, B. (1970), Incidental learning and Machiavellianism. Journal of Social Psychology, 82, 109-115.
Neuman, L. W. (2003), Social research methods, qualitative and quantitative approaches (5th ed.). USA: Pearson Education.
Plumley, A. H. (1996), The determinants of individual income tax compliance. Washington: IRS Research Division, Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service.
Rayburn, J. M., & Rayburn, J. G. (1996), Relationship between Machiavellianism and Type A personality and ethical orientation. Journal of Business Ethics, 15, 1209-1219.
Reckers, P. M., Sanders, D. L., & Roark, S. J. (1994), The influence of ethical attitudes on taxpayer compliance. National Tax Journal, 47(4), 825-836.
Roth, J. A., Scholz, J. T., & Witte, A. D. (1989), Taxpayer compliance volume 1: An agenda for research. University of Pennsylvannia Press.
Shafer, W. E., & Simmons, R. S. (2008), Social responsibility, Machiavellianism and tax avoidance: A study of Hong Kong tax professionals. Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, 21(5), 695-720.
Singh, V. (2003), Tax compliance and ethical decision making: A Malaysian perspective. Kuala Lumpur: Longman.
Singh, V. (2005), Tax thoughts on today's taxing times. Malaysia: Digibook Sdn Bhd.
Song, Y.-d., & Yarbrough, T. E. (1978), Tax ethics and taxpayer attitudes: A survey. Public Administration Review(September/October), 442-452.
Torgler, B. (2002), Speaking to theorists and searching for facts: Tax morale and tax compliance in experiments. Journal of Economic Surveys, 16(5), 657-683.
Trivedi, V. U., Shehata, M., & Lynn, B. (2003), Impact of personal and situational factors on taxpayer compliance: An experimental analysis. Journal of Business Ethics, 47, 175-197.
Trivedi, V. U., Shehata, M., & Mestelman, S. (2005), Attitudes, incentives and tax compliance. Canadian Tax Journal, 53(1), 29-61.
Vogel, J. (1974), Taxation and public opinion in Sweden: An interpretation of recent survey data. National Tax Journal (pre-1986), 27(4), 499-513.
Webley, P., Cole, M., & Eidjar, O.-P. (2001), The prediction of self-reported and hypothetical tax evasion: Evidence from England, France and Norway. Journal of Economic Psychology, 22, 141-155.
Wenzel, M. (2004a), An analysis of norm processes in tax compliance. Journal of Economic Psychology, 25(2), 213-228.
Wenzel, M. (2004b), The social side of sanctions: Personal and social norms as moderator of detterrence. Law and Human Behaviour, 28(5), 547-567.
Wenzel, M. (2005a), Motivation or rationalisation? Causal relations between ethics, norms and tax compliance. Journal of Economic Psychology, 26(4), 491-508.
Wenzel, M. (2005b), Misperceptions of social norms about tax compliance: From theory to intervention. Journal of Economic Psychology, 26, 862-883.
In-Text Citation: (Sapari et al., 2020)
To Cite this Article: Sapari, A., Nadia, S. A., & Tanggamani, V. (2020). An Investigation of the Relationship Among Machiavellianism, Ethical Beliefs and Tax Compliance Behaviour: A Preliminary Study on Selected Individual Taxpayers in Malaysia. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 10(12), 838–858.
Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s)
Published by HRMARS (www.hrmars.com)
This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this license may be seen at: http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode