Nowadays, here in Spain we are living the pre-electoral days for regional and local elections. Taxes are one of the main issues than political parties discuss in order to gain votes.

We do not know the complete electoral programs but the taxation (both public incomes and expenses) will be treated, without any doubt, inside them. Furthermore, the media will cover all kind of issues discussed, even taxes. They (media) are one of the main responsibles of the citizen´s tax culture. The tax culture as the ideas, values and attitudes that inspire and guide citizens on tax responsability.

We do not should forget than tax fraud is a complex phenomenon based on adquired rights without any responsability. At the end, it is a collectivization problem in fairness and solidarity values.

According to Durkheim (1987), in the collectivization process the family has a big influence but the more age the individual has, the more is influenced by friends or media among others. In all countries, Spain included, the tax culture is responsibility of informal education (family, media or friends) as well as of formal education (courses teached by specialized insttitutions), remaining educational system secondly.

I would like to focus myself on the media because of its key role in tax collectivization for citizens. The media are the responsible for the agenda-setting, they prioritize some issues over others and even they choose the way and time to talk about something.

From my point of view, any Government should invest more time in educate people about tax matters, not being the media one of the main responsible to inform about these issues. It is important to underline how important to take a good level of tax culture between citizens is in order to gain public incomes and to avoid fraudulent attitudes.

How important is the role of the media in tax culture of citizens in your country? Are you usually interested on tax news? Do you think your Government should include the tax education (values) at schools and universities?

Waiting for your opinions!!

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