Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
International Journal of Public Finance (Online), cilt.10, sa.2, ss.325-340, 2025 (TRDizin)
This research examines the effect of positive and negative emotions on Turkish taxpayers' attitudes regarding the ethics of tax evasion. A questionnaire survey was administered to 464 Turkish individual taxpayers. To determine how emotions influenced the ethics of tax evasion (the dependent variable), simple linear regression models were utilized. This determination was carried out separately for positive and negative emotions (the independent variables). The regression results reveal that positive emotions have a substantial negative effect (ß = -0.482) on attitudes toward tax evasion, explaining approximately 24% of the variance (R2 = 0.238), whereas negative emotions exhibit a distinct positive impact (ß = 0.435) with a lower explanatory power (R2 = 0.127).The data indicate that greater positive emotionality among participants correlated with a stronger conviction that tax evasion is unethical. In contrast, heightened negative emotions were associated with an increased perception of tax evasion as ethical. Nevertheless, negative emotions explained only a small fraction of the variation in ethical judgments regarding tax evasion, implying that other significant determinants are operative.