Can Ethics and Economic Incentives Mitigate Tax preparers’ Aggressive Judgements and Decisions?

We examine whether the personal attribute of ethics and an external economic incentive in the form of a standard tax preparation fee can mitigate tax preparers’ aggressive tax reporting behaviour. We use a structural equation model (SEM) to identify the influential paths of ethics and economic incentives on the aggressiveness of tax preparers. Based on the results of a quasi-experiment involving tax preparers in Korea, we find that ethical attributes both directly and indirectly mitigate aggressive tax reporting by reducing tax preparers’ fear of client dissatisfaction. We then find that the introduction of a standard tax preparation fee does not directly or indirectly suppress the tax aggressiveness of tax preparers. Our study contributes to an integral examination of the effectiveness of both psychological and economic factors on tax preparers’ judgements and decisions.