If your taxes are automatically taken out of your paycheck, you're actually less motivated to pay them than someone who is self-employed and could cheat.
March 25, 2026
Original Paper
Institutional Trust, Horizontal Equity, and Tax Morale in India
SSRN · 6428839
The Takeaway
Common sense suggests that being forced to comply would build a habit of 'tax morale,' but the opposite is true. Salaried workers feel they are carrying an unfair share of the burden compared to the self-employed, which destroys their voluntary desire to contribute.
From the abstract
I examine how institutional trust and perceptions of fairness across taxpayer groups may influence tax morale in India using data from the World Values Survey. Tax morale, broadly defined as the intrinsic motivation to pay taxes, is an important factor shaping tax compliance. Analysis indicates a positive and statistically significant association between tax morale and trust in the government, parliament, and civil services. Salaried employees report lower tax morale than self-employed individua