Tax evasion and its evaluation in the Baltic States

Straipsnyje nagrinėjama mokesčių mokėtojų elgsenos problematika. Apžvelgus vengimo mokėti mokesčius teorinį vertinimą ir praktikoje kylančias problemas, atliekamas trijų Baltijos šalių – Lietuvos, Latvijos ir Estijos – mokesčių mokėtojų elgsenos tyrimas. Naudojantis Pasaulio vertybių tyrimo ir Europos vertybių tyrimo duomenimis ir pasitelkiant dvinarę logistinę regresiją, siekiama nustatyti pagrindinius veiksnius, galinčius lemti vengimą mokėti mokesčius Baltijos valstybėse. Atliktos analizės rezultatai rodo, kad labiausiai jis yra susijęs su korupcijos toleravimu. Svarbus mokesčių mokėjimo veiksnys yra pasididžiavimas savo valstybe. Polinkis mokėti mokesčius priklauso ir nuo amžiaus, pajamų, religingumo, lyties, pasitikėjimo valdžia. Atskleistieji veiksniai kartu yra nuoroda, kokios priemonės padėtų padidinti mokesčių moralę ir pagerinti mokesčių surinkimą.In modern society the main share of public income is comprised of the private sectors’ taxes. However, rational economic agents tend to evade paying taxes and, at the same time, take part in the consumption of public goods. Literature suggests that the tax gap in the EU constitutes about one fifth of all tax income. Traditional tax payment models are supported by classical economic theory; however, they are not always capable of disclosing properly the existence of the tax morale problem. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to disclose the main factors behind the attitude towards paying taxes in the Baltic States. For this type of research, authors employ commonly used data of the World Values Survey and the European Values Study and use dichotomous logit and probit models to make quantitative assessment. The main factor behind tax evasion in all of the Baltic States is justification of corruption. I. e. the more respondents tend to justify corruption or bribe-taking, the bigger the logodds to justify avoidance of paying taxes are. In addition, the justification of tax avoidance is higher in cases where the level of national pride is lower and where respondents are younger. The results of the logit and probit models for individual Baltic States suggest that the income level, religiosity, gender and trust in parliament also contribute to the payment of taxes. Taking into account suggestions provided for the tax evasion models, some authors propose guidelines to improve compliance with taxes. Among these measures codes of honour (psychological motive), increase of the quality of public sector goods and services, tightening of links among society members, fostering of patriotic feelings towards one’s state, and refusal of tax amnesties could be mentioned. Tax evasion could be decreased by employing these and non-traditional enforcement measures. In order to evaluate tax morale in more detail, the need to have more detailed data is obvious. Such data could be obtained during experiments, observations, specialised surveys. The periodical and systematical assessment of factors behind tax evasion could suggest alternative policy tools for better tax compliance. In this case, the tax gap could decrease. At the same time, a number of authors have found that the main reason behind poor tax compliance is the shadow economy. This is also supported by the findings of this paper. In addition, a number of complex measures should be implemented in order to decrease the value of the shadow economy