The impact of emotions on tax compliance with a neurofiscal approach

Tax, which is an important source of income in financing public expenditures, is a share that the state takes for free by using its sovereign power. The state's unfair behavior in taxation will cause the taxpayer to think that the state is unfairly collecting taxes from him. In this case, the taxpayer will feel negative emotions and this will negatively affect tax compliance. The effect of social-psychological factors as well as economic factors in tax compliance has been proven. In the thesis study, the role of emotions in tax compliance will be tried to be determined. For this, the experiment and survey method will be used. In the experimental part, the EEG device, one of the brain imaging techniques, will be used. Then, which emotions are felt in tax scenarios will be tested with the survey method. In the study, it was determined that there was activation in the prefrontal cortex and occipital region, where emotions are processed in the brain and are effective in decision-making. Self-employed earners reacted more than those who earned wage income. However, according to the survey data, it was concluded that positive emotions increase tax compliance and negative emotions decrease tax compliance.