Behavioral Implications of Taxation: A Comment.

Abstract This article comments on the article "Behavioral Implications of Taxation," D. Larry Crumbley, published in the October 1973 issue of the journal "The Accounting Review." Crumbley considers some behavioral aspects of income taxation. He makes two major points. First, he suggests that research should be undertaken into the effects of tax laws on behavior. Second, he suggests that accountants should become involved. With respect to the first point, the purpose of this article is to indicate that Crumbley is recommending two distinctly different types of research. He does not always maintain a clear distinction between these two types in his discussion of behavioral tax research. With respect to the second point, the purpose of this article is to examine Crumbley's reasoning for his suggestion that accountants become involved in behavioral tax research. It has been suggested that the primary aim of behavioral science is to identify underlying regularities in human behavior and to determine what antecedent conditions give rise to them and what consequences follow from them. However, research which focuses primarily upon antecedent conditions and human behavior in an effort to predict consequences is very different from research which focuses primarily upon consequences and tries to infer the behavior that led to those consequences.