Matthew T. Phillips

Most don’t cheat on taxes

The Today Show’s Life Inc. blog reports that most Americans don’t cheat on their taxes, and for most taxpayers, it is personal integrity rather than the threat of an audit that stops them.

Of course, the people responding to this survey knew that people at the IRS were going to read their responses. (The survey was conducted with privacy safeguards by the independent IRS Oversight Board, but still….)

What the survey can’t address is the number of people who fail to report accurately, but justify the failure to themselves and so don’t perceive themselves as cheating.