An Investigation of the Theory of Planned Behavior and the Role of Moral Obligation in Tax Compliance

Abstract

In this study, Ajzen's (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior is used as a theoretical framework to extend prior research examining taxpayers' compliance intentions. Specifically, moral obligation is added to the theory's explicit constructs: attitude, subjective norms (i.e., peer influence), and perceived behavioral control. Moral obligation was expected to be a moderating influence (Reckers et al. 1994), and therefore interaction effects were hypothesized.The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, a procedure was used to determine the outcome beliefs that underlie taxpayers' attitudes. These beliefs were incorporated into an attitude measure used in the second phase in which subjects responded to two of three tax-compliance scenarios. The data from phase two were analyzed using multinomial logistic regression. The results indicate that the model including moral obligation, provides a significant explanation of tax noncompliance in the three different scenarios. However, the interaction effect of moral obligation appears to be more complex than the relationship suggested by Reckers et al. (1994).