Negative Responses to Taxes: Causes and Mitigation

Improving tax attitudes and mitigating the effects of negative tax attitudes can help policy makers fund government operations and gain support from citizens. Beliefs both about tax payments (e.g., how much a person owes) and benefits (e.g., who gains from government revenue) affect attitudes toward taxes. But, these beliefs often reflect misunderstandings and are easily swayed by contextual influences. Negative attitudes have been linked to tax avoidance and evasion, significantly reducing government revenues. Understanding reasons for negative reactions to taxes can both improve attitudes and minimize consequences of persistent negative attitudes. Small changes to the tax collection process—such as eliciting taxpayer preferences, clearly connecting tax payments to benefits, reducing hassles for taxpayers, and appealing to norms—may reduce negative attitudes and increase compliance. Because all interventions involve both benefits and costs, policy makers should carefully test interventions in the relevant context before implementating at scale