Changing taxpayers’ beliefs with information that enables to make sense of taxes: the case of Lithuania

Introduction. Tax administrators employ various methods in order to influence taxpayers’ beliefs and behaviour, hoping to reduce tax evasion. The study seeks to identify how much detailed tax related information is required in order to affect the beliefs of taxpayers towards tax compliance. Method. A nationwide representative survey was used to measure the respondents’ opinions formed when making sense of the three different information messages they were offered. Analysis. Quantitative data was analysed with the help of the statistical package SPSS. Results. Findings showed the potential value of including such sense making information for taxpayers’ feedback on paid and distributed taxes. We found that messages from State Tax Inspectorate detailing different information on taxes and examples of how these taxes could be spent, do make sense and affect respondents’ beliefs, however, not necessary in the direction the STI would want them to. Conclusions. The findings of this study show that providing taxpayers with detailed and personalised information on taxes might also lead in an unwanted direction, as taxpayers might perceive personal information on taxes in a different way than the generalised information presented nationwide or even countywide.