ABSTRACT

Previous accounting research shows that taxes affect decision making by individuals and firms. Most studies assume that agents have an accurate perception regarding their tax burden. However, there is a growing body of literature analyzing whether taxes are indeed perceived correctly. We review 128 studies on the measurement of tax misperception and its behavioral implications. The review reveals that many taxpayers have substantial tax misperceptions that lead to biased decision making. We develop a Behavioral Taxpayer Response Model on the impact of provided tax information on tax perception. Besides individual traits, characteristics of the tax information and the decision environment determine the extent of tax misperception. We discuss opportunities for future research and methodological limitations. While there is much evidence on tax misperception at the individual level, we hardly find any research at the firm level. Little is known about the real effects of managers’ tax misperception and on how tax information is strategically managed to impact stakeholders. This research gap is surprising as a large part of the accounting literature analyzes decision making and disclosure of firms. We recommend a mixed-method approach combining experiments, surveys, and archival data analyses to improve the knowledge on tax misperception and its consequences.

摘要

以前的会计研究表明，税收会影响个人和公司的决策。大多数研究假设代理人对其税负有准确的认识。然而，越来越多的文献分析了税收是否确实被正确理解。我们回顾了 128 项关于税收误解测量及其行为影响的研究。审查显示，许多纳税人存在严重的税收误解，导致决策存在偏见。我们针对提供的税收信息对税收感知的影响开发了一个行为纳税人反应模型。除了个体特征外，税收信息的特征和决策环境也决定了税收误解的程度。我们讨论了未来研究的机会和方法限制。虽然在个人层面有很多关于税收误解的证据，但我们在公司层面几乎找不到任何研究。关于管理者的税收误解的真正影响以及如何战略性地管理税收信息以影响利益相关者，人们知之甚少。这一研究差距令人惊讶，因为大部分会计文献分析了公司的决策和披露。我们推荐一种结合实验、调查和档案数据分析的混合方法，以提高对税收误解及其后果的认识。这一研究差距令人惊讶，因为大部分会计文献分析了公司的决策和披露。我们推荐一种结合实验、调查和档案数据分析的混合方法，以提高对税收误解及其后果的认识。这一研究差距令人惊讶，因为大部分会计文献分析了公司的决策和披露。我们推荐一种结合实验、调查和档案数据分析的混合方法，以提高对税收误解及其后果的认识。