Tax evasion and heuristics. A research note

The paper examines the heuristics which taxpayers use in making tax evasion decisions. The following propositions are tested in an experiment using students. First, the taxpaper's own level of evasion will be positively related to what he perceives as the levels of evasion by others. Second, taxpayers who have been audited are more likely to assess the probability of audit as higher and therefore decrease their levels of evasion. The experimental results fail to support the first proposition but do support the second suggesting the presence of an 'availability' effect.