Social Deviance: The Act of Tax Evasion - Essay Example

Social Deviance: The Act of Tax Evasion. In December 2007, the New York Times reported that most real e companies did not report the actual tax reports. The Internal Revenue Authority states that most real estate companies do not make proper tax reports as required by the law. Tax evasion is a social deviance by the elite community working in white collar jobs. Tax evasion is a conscious avoidance to pay tax. Elite deviance refers to wrong doing of powerful and wealthy organizations and individuals who refuse to pay tax.

The organizations or individuals evade paying tax by making corporate contributions and illegal campaign contributions that aim at deceiving the public and the government. The actual profits of the company or actual income of individuals remain hidden. Tax evasion violates public trust and the government polices and actions. The social norm of paying tax is that all people of a given country must pay tax regardless of the position they hold in the public offices. Tax principles say that a good tax system should be equitable with no quid pro quo relationship between the tax payer and the government.

Status of quid pro quo means that the taxpayer should not expect any benefits from paying taxes. Most corporations and individuals who evade paying tax are influenced by the situations that they operate in. For example, a recent report by New York Times indicates that most real estate companies are in partnership. In such circumstances, it is hard to keep track of partner’s actual income to be taxed. The situation of real estate companies is hard to assess thus the high probability of individuals and organizations evading tax.

Another situation that makes real estate owners or organizations to evade tax is via false declaration of capital gains. The government does not tax capital gains from any form of income source. Individual evaders will declare a wrong capital gain which is not true and evade paying tax. In other situations, the real estate Agents are granted a tax deduction for depreciation of buildings. The rent the real estate owners get is deducted all the expenses of maintaining and repairing the buildings.

Most real estate individuals or organization will declare false maintenance costs to evade paying tax. The laws made for taxing real estates favor and tend to favor tax evasion behaviors. Most real estate companies are owned by the rich people of the society. The rich are always favored by laws in the society. The conflict arises where a conflict between the law and the elite individuals exist. It is clear that tax evasion by the real estate individual and organizations reflects the imbalances of power in tackling and reporting such crimes.

According Internal Revenue Services Department, the government of United States loses about fifty million dollars per year on tax evasion. There is a conflict with the government and the society when it comes to prosecution of cases as tax evasion. The government does not put much emphasis on curbing the tax evasion. The government to date does not have the exact number of cases involving tax evasion. Yet, tax evasion is a crime prosecutable by law. The government has not taken time to evaluate the effects of tax evasion on the society.

In a country where tax evasion is common, the chances of the other society members refusing to pay tax is high. The lack of government to punishing tax evaders will promote a culture of ignorance when it comes to paying tax, which will lead to conflicts between the government and the other members of society as well. The government is always blamed for not putting in place effective measures to ensure that people do not evade tax. Both the government and the real estate individuals and organization compete for money.

The government requires revenue for the day to day running of the government. The individuals or organizations on the other hand require focuses on minimizing costs such as taxation to maximize profits. In most cases, the individuals will make unauthorized tax deductions from the total income. In making such deduction the individuals will report lower income thereby evading payment of the total tax they are supposed to pay. Some organizations or individuals will claim that they have made huge contributions to charitable organizations in order to evade tax.

It is a social norm to contribute to charitable organization for corporate social responsibility purposes. The donations made to charitable organizations will be seen as a way of giving back to the society which is a social norm but at the back of it is a means of evading tax. This will lead to a conflict in fulfillment of corporate social responsibility values. The auditing bodies and the tax department always come into conflict over the tax evasion matters. The tax department will normally hold the auditors responsible for any tax returns wrongly filled.

Any amount of money missing or is undeclared will be pushed to the audit department for answers. The government on seeing the amount of revenue they lose through tax evasion must put in place policies to curb tax evasion. The government must be serious in prosecuting tax evaders. In the United States tax, evasion is a criminal offence. The government should use the money they receive from taxpayers in a transparent manner in order to encourage a culture of tax paying in the society. The money received from taxpayers should be used in projects that provide benefits to the society at large .

Corruption of tax officials should be eradicated in order to maintain a free and fair tax system. The society should be educated on the advantages of paying tax and on the consequences of evading tax. Works cited. Johnston, Cay “David. Ex-I.R.S. Agent Says Tax Evasion by Real Estate Partners is Huge.” The New York Times. December 7, 2007.