This study reports on the impact of exposure to tax dilemmas on tax morale. We focus on young adults in their “impressionable years” and with little or no previous tax exposure in order to estimate the impact of actual (albeit experimental) exposure to tax dilemmas on their self-declared tax morale. First, we ascertain the participants’ (N = 385), representation and attitudes towards tax, and second, we observe the impact of facing tax decisions on their present and future level of tax compliance. This allows us to investigate, in the realm of taxation, the generic question of knowing how one’s history (and one’s decisions) influences one’s ethical representations and attitude. Although of less external validity than studies using naturally occurring events or historical periods, the use of an experimental simulation enables us to investigate the three different dimensions that could shape people’s personal history: acting, experiencing and observing. Thanks to an interactive and systemic approach, participants are invited to make decisions in a tax context, to experience tax “events” and are given the opportunity to observe both their own behavior, that of others as well as the consequences of those actions, and repeat and test those three different steps several times. We find that the simulation tends to reduce honesty and ethical concerns with respect to taxation, a decrease in tax morale. This reduction seems to be driven by those subjects who were actually facing a tax dilemma and have to make a compliance decision. Other subjects, only observing or experiencing the effects of low tax compliance, are only marginally affected. One possible interpretation is that individuals have an initial overconfidence in their propensity to tax compliance and tax morale, which is challenged by their own decisions in typical dilemmas.

本研究报告了税收困境对税收士气的影响。我们关注处于“令人印象深刻的岁月”并且以前很少或没有税务风险的年轻人，以估计实际（尽管是实验性的）税务困境对他们自我申报的税务士气的影响。首先，我们确定参与者（N = 385）、代表和对税收的态度，其次，我们观察面临的税收决策对其当前和未来税收合规水平的影响。这使我们能够在税收领域调查了解一个人的历史（和一个人的决定）如何影响一个人的道德表现和态度的一般问题。尽管与使用自然发生的事件或历史时期的研究相比，外部有效性较低，使用实验模拟使我们能够研究可以塑造人们个人历史的三个不同维度：表演、体验和观察。由于采用互动和系统的方法，参与者被邀请在税务背景下做出决定，体验税务“事件”，并有机会观察自己、他人的行为以及这些行为的后果，以及多次重复并测试这三个不同的步骤。我们发现模拟倾向于减少税收方面的诚实和道德问题，降低税收士气。这种减少似乎是由那些实际上面临税收困境并必须做出合规决定的主体推动的。其他主体，仅观察或体验低税收合规的影响，只是受到轻微影响。一种可能的解释是，个人最初对自己的税收遵从倾向和税收士气过度自信，这在典型的困境中受到他们自己的决定的挑战。