The Ease of Tax Evasion

This tax evasion capstone has been conscientiously curated by seven competent authors. With the sheer and direct intent to categorically and comprehensively encapsulate all the intrinsic, extrinsic, and other inexcusable factors that motivate an individual in their pursuit of committing such a lawless crime. Tax is charged by the government in two ways, direct and indirect taxes. Direct tax is the tax being obtained from an individual or a corporation’s profit. Indirect tax is tax attained from consumers' payments. Tax is a mandatory contribution that every person and corporation need to pay, there is no way for a resident to avoid doing their tax returns. Even being a resident for a part of the year is subject to Canadian income tax while they were a resident in Canada. Some people try to use illegal means to avoid paying taxes and use schemes to misrepresent their income to the Canada Revenue Agency. These misrepresentations can come in the form of underreporting incomes, inflating deductions, or hiding money in offshore accounts. The authors illustrated throughout the research paper the many factors such as economic, political, regulatory, legal, and social constituents that are impacted by the complex and problematic crime of tax evasion. Under the economic analysis, the link between tax evasion and the impact it has on any given country's economy is stated as well as its overall influence on the gross domestic production (GDP). Under political analysis, the history of tax hikes and their correlation to tax evasion is delineated. Under regulatory and legal analysis, the authors have addressed the role of the governments in preventing such a lawless crime from taking place, and the importance of understanding the law within evasion (Criminal code of Canada). Lastly, under social analysis, the following factors have been addressed, consisting of corruption, tax fairness, peer influence, moral obligations/tax ethics, and tax education. To certify that this research paper is free from material errors, omissions, misrepresentations, and personal biases/prejudices, the authors ensured to efficiently utilize appropriate research methods. One of the primary sources was research papers and journal articles derived from Humber Libraries to produce the highest-grade quality capstone on tax evasion. The next primary source that allowed authors to create the utmost accurate depiction of the reality of tax evasion in societies was by conducting questionnaires on members of our society via google forms. Over the span of 3 months of developing this capstone, the authors have had the privilege to garner 101 responses to eleven very in-depth and probing questions. One of the major takeaways from the analysis of the survey questionnaires is that individuals are highly influenced by their peers on social media and traditional media outlets. Hence, if tax obligations are taken lightly and dismissively on social media platforms this will profoundly impact the taxpayer’s compliance behaviors. From the survey, the authors have denoted that peer influence has shifted over the years from physical interaction to non-physical interaction (social media/news). Lastly, secondary sources were employed, such as trustable online news portal sites such as CBC News, The Financial Post, The Canadian Press, National Post, etc. and social media sites to better understand the extent of the current tax evasion affairs.