Ethics Of Tax Law Compliance: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

Abstract

The first semester Tax I student seems to be interested in the ethical issue of why citizens should report their income and only take legitimate tax deductions when it is unlikely that anyone will ever know. This paper addresses this issue from an interdisciplinary approach of accounting, philosophy, and political science. The accounting perspective discusses the issue from the expectations of the tax preparer and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The philosophical perspectives provides background of a citizen who might want to “do the right thing” for the sake of the common good. The political science perspective explores the political nature of the individual and corporate citizen and their approach to civic virtue.