This paper analyzes the data on tax evasion that was collected as part of a much larger survey on human beliefs and values. Data from the Asian countries that were included in the survey are compared and contrasted. The opinions of participants are ranked by country in several demographic categories, including gender and age. The data gathered from some surveys of China and Thailand are also discussed.

Tolerance of tax evasion varies widely from one country to another, and one culture to another. Crowe (1944) examined 500 years of theological and philosophical literature and found that three basic positions on the ethics of tax evasion had evolved over the centuries. Philosophers and theologians had argued that tax evasion was (1) never justifiable, (2) always justifiable, or (3) sometimes justifiable. Those who thought tax evasion could sometimes be justified on ethical grounds generally thought that it could be justified in cases where the government was corrupt or where the tax system was perceived as being unfair. The inability to pay tax was also an argument that often appeared in the literature. Some philosophers, who discussed the just war theory, argued that individuals had no ethical duty to support a government that was engaged in an unjust war (Pennock, 1998).

Some religious texts take the position that tax evasion is never, or almost never justified. The religious literatures of the Jewish (Cohn, 1998; and Tamari, 1998), Baha'i (DeMoville, 1998) and Mormon (Smith and Kimball, 1998) faiths believe that it is against God's law to evade taxes. Some secular philosophers, on the other hand, were unable to find any justification for taxation (Block, 1989; 1993).The Human Beliefs and Values Surveys (Inglehart et al., 2004) collected responses to scores of questions from 200,000 people in 81 societies representing 85% of the world's population. The interviews were face-to-face, which introduces a bias, since people might have different answers to some questions if they could answer anonymously. The data used in the present study was collected between 1994 and 2003. The survey was published in 2004.

Ethics and Tax Evasion in Asia,evasion, justifiable, collected, survey, ethical, government, literature, philosophers, religious, discussed, compared, contrasted, analyzes, demographic, anonymously, ethics, facetoface, generally, inability, individuals, Inglehart, justification, Kimball, Mormon, literatures, Pennock, participants, perceived, beliefs, Philosophers, position, representing, secular