Benefit Fraud vs. Tax Evasion: nuove prospettive per la psicologia fiscale

[Autom. eng. transl.] Fiscal psychology is currently mainly concerned with taxation, with a priority focus on the phenomena of tax evasion and tax compliance. This contribution intends to launch an exploration of some new perspectives for the application of psychology to taxation, considering the phenomenon of "benefit fraud" (frauds against the tax system, such as the well-known phenomenon of so-called false invalids). In the perspective of homo oeconomicus, tax evasion and benefit fraud should not differ in terms of perceived seriousness or propensity, with the same economic value. A psychological approach to the two themes considered, however, suggests possible differences. The present research intends to carry out a basic exploration with respect to some topics such as perceived gravity, perceived diffusion, attitude and behavior of tax evasion and benefit fraud. A questionnaire was created, compiled by 438 students from the faculties of Psychology and Economics of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan and of the University of Bath (UK). The comparison between Italy and the United Kingdom, in addition to being interesting given the similarity of the tax system and the different tax evasion rate of the two countries, also allows for a comparison between a country where the financial crisis has had significant effects (Italy) and a country where the problem is less pressing (UK). The results show that, for the same economic value, evasion and benefit fraud are perceived differently. In particular, participants tend to be stricter with benefit fraud and more lenient with evasion; furthermore, tax evasion is often perceived as less serious than other unlawful behavior (including non-fiscal ones). Finally, numerous differences can be observed in the two cultural contexts considered (Italy and UK). These results indicate that it may be promising to extend the range of action of fiscal psychology even beyond the simple ambit of taxation, ie including other aspects of the tax system such as those inherent to the welfare system and public spending.