The Influence of Culture on the Design of National Taxation Systems

Although culture is assumed to play a role in the design of national taxation systems, its influence is not well understood. This book draws on Hofstede’s (1980) cultural theory to develop a theoretical framework of the influence of culture on the design of national taxation systems. It also empirically tests hypotheses that link Hofstede’s (1980) individualism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance and masculinity cultural dimensions to some key values of taxation systems: equity, simplicity, neutrality and visibility. Based on data from 43 countries, the results show that individualism is significantly linked to all of the taxation values, while power distance is significantly linked to equity, neutrality and visibility; and uncertainty avoidance is significantly linked to simplicity, neutrality and visibility. However, masculinity is not linked to any of the taxation values. These findings offer support for the importance of culture in influencing the design of national taxation systems, and have implications for taxation policy in several areas: tax harmonization, taxation reform in developing countries and tax compliance behavior.