Taxpayer's viewpoint to tax burden: The case of Trabzon city

Taxes constitute the most important source of income for the financing of public services on behalf of states. With the development of the interventionist state understanding, the fields of activity of states have expanded day by day and parallel to this situation, the tax burden on individuals and the general society has increased. The increasing tax burden has increased the discomfort with the tax and has made the financing of public services difficult. Based on the fact that Turkey ranks quite low in the OECD and other world countries in terms of tax burden; It aims to determine to what extent this situation is valid for the society and to what extent the level of tax burden in their minds is compatible with the statistical data. In this direction, a questionnaire was applied to 407 people residing in the city of Trabzon. The findings show that there is a discrepancy between the objective statistical data and the tax psychology of the society, and the results are opposite to each other. The reasons for these results are factors such as the low national income per capita in Turkey compared to OECD countries and the distribution of the total tax burden.