Asia : According to a research released on Monday, public faith in taxes is still highest in Asia, with India standing out for having comparatively high tax morale and fiscal system trust.

According to the report jointly released by ACCA, IFAC, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand (CA ANZ), and the OECD, nearly 45% of Indian respondents think that tax revenues are used for the public good, and 41% see paying taxes as a contribution to their community rather than an extra expense, supporting the notion of taxes as a shared civic responsibility.

According to the research, 68% of Indian respondents indicated they would never defend tax evasion, even if given the chance, demonstrating strong ethical standards.

Eighty percent of Indian respondents said they would be willing to pay a small to significant additional amount of tax to support sustainable development goals, highlighting the country’s strong alignment between taxation and sustainability outcomes. This indicates that fiscal policy is widely accepted as a tool for long-term social and environmental advancement.

The results from India are consistent with a larger Asian pattern in which public value, justice, and openness are the key drivers of the relatively high level of faith in taxes. According to Md. Sajid Khan, Director-India at ACCA, “the willingness of Indian respondents to make larger tax contributions to support sustainable development also reflects a growing alignment between fiscal policy and long-term societal goals.”

The findings showed that, in comparison to survey participants in other areas, taxpayers in Asia generally believe that their tax systems are fair and are far more certain that their taxes provide fair public benefit.

Theoretically, there is considerable support for the fiscal compact since respondents in all 29 nations tested were more inclined to see taxes as a gift to their society rather than a burden. In South-East Asia, where almost two-thirds (64.7%) agreed, this opinion was most prevalent.

Asia’s high level of public faith in taxes provides the rest of the globe with important lessons. People here see taxes as a way to give back to the community rather than as an expense, but that trust cannot be taken for granted,” said ACCA Chief Executive Helen Brand OBE.

“This is the first phase of a new project for the OECD looking at tax morale in Asia,” said Manal Corwin, director of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration.

Over the course of the next year, we will talk about these findings with the governments in the area to determine what factors influence faith in taxes across Asia and the most effective ways to foster trust. This will assist governments in creating tax structures that are more equitable, responsive, and cohesive,” Corwin said.