Keywords

tax sentiment, social media, voluntary compliance

Abstract

Motivations for voluntary tax compliance that fall outside of a standard, rational model can be intrinsic or extrinsic. We use social media rhetoric about taxes to create a measure of tax sentiment that reflects taxpayers’ extrinsic, behavioral motivations for voluntary compliance, and then examine the association between public tax sentiment and tax compliance. Our machinelearning based approach for measuring sentiment uses millions of tax-related tweets, which vary by time and geography. We find that tax sentiment is negatively associated with tax compliance. Our main findings and cross-sectional tests are consistent with the notion that paying one’s taxes is a way to disassociate one’s social identity from the tax evasion, inequity, and waste that are often the target of negative social ire. Overall, our study provides key insights on the evolution of tax-related discourse on social media and its association with tax compliance.

Original Publication Citation

“Social Media Tax Sentiment” (with Andrew Belnap, Kevin Standridge, and Brady Williams). 2nd round at TAR

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2024

Publisher

TAR

Language

English

College

Marriott School of Business

Department

Accountancy

University Standing at Time of Publication

Full Professor

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