{"id":564,"date":"2008-12-04T11:30:21","date_gmt":"2008-12-04T15:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/?p=564"},"modified":"2014-11-14T16:01:11","modified_gmt":"2014-11-14T21:01:11","slug":"who-thinks-its-okay-to-cheat-on-taxes-study-looks-at-variables","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/2008\/12\/who-thinks-its-okay-to-cheat-on-taxes-study-looks-at-variables\/","title":{"rendered":"Who thinks it\u2019s okay to cheat on taxes? Study looks at variables."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Would you cheat on  your taxes?<\/p>\n<p>Never? Always?  Sometimes?<\/p>\n<p>Two members of the School of Accounting in the College of Business Administration conducted an analysis of data on individuals in six Latin American countries and the United States to determine the factors affecting this ethical issue.<\/p>\n<p>[flv:http:\/\/business.fiu.edu\/newsletters\/BusinessNetworks\/2008\/12\/videos\/robert.flv 500 334]<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe zeroed in on a portion of a wider study that gathered information on human beliefs and values conducted on 200,000 people in 85 countries,\u201d said <strong>Robert  McGee<\/strong>, director, Center for Accounting, Auditing, and Tax Studies (CAATS),  who collaborated on the research with <strong>Wendy  Gelman<\/strong>, instructor, School of Accounting. \u201cThe relevant question, answered by 8,465 respondents, was would they cheat on taxes if it were possible to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The ranking of the countries from most to least opposed to tax evasion was Venezuela, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Peru, Chile, the United States, and Mexico. McGee and Gelman\u2019s analysis revealed that:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>People  in Venezuela and Argentina  most oppose tax evasion. People in Mexico  and the United States  oppose it least.<\/li>\n<li>Women  oppose tax evasion more than men do.<\/li>\n<li>People\u2019s  opposition to tax evasion increases as they get older.<\/li>\n<li>Education  level does not make a difference regarding opinions about the action.<\/li>\n<li>People  who attend religious services less frequently are more likely to evade taxes  than people who attend more frequently.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Businesses take note: multiple reasons for  tax evasion exist.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Although evading taxes seems like a simple question of right versus wrong, individuals have a variety of justifications for their actions, according to McGee.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSome people think it is all right not to pay taxes if the government is corrupt, or if it wastes money, or if a family situation requires the money,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The study, \u201cCheating on Taxes: A Comparative Study of Opinion in Six Latin American Countries and the USA,\u201d will be published in the <em>Akron Tax Law  Review<\/em>. McGee and Gelman have tackled the same subject in two additional  studies and in a poll using students in the business school.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want to see if we can determine any differences in our students\u2019 attitudes toward tax evasion based on gender, age, education, religious affiliation, and ethnic background,\u201d Gelman said. \u201cThis really hits home to us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And both caution employers that, while the study does not offer a solution, \u201cthe research raises moral questions that business people may ponder,\u201d according to McGee, and \u201cthe results of the data might influence their behavior when faced with similar situations,\u201d according to Gelman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Would you cheat on your taxes? Never? Always? Sometimes? Two members of the School of Accounting in the College of Business Administration conducted an analysis of data on individuals in six Latin American countries and the United States to determine the factors affecting this ethical issue. [flv:http:\/\/business.fiu.edu\/newsletters\/BusinessNetworks\/2008\/12\/videos\/robert.flv 500 334] \u201cWe zeroed in on a portion [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":71,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4,14],"tags":[2271,2667],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/71"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24100,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions\/24100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biznews.fiu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}