Toward a cultural sociology of taxation

This article advances calls for a cultural sociology of taxation by arguing that Zelizer’s theory of how monetary exchanges perform ‘relational work’ can be applied to taxpaying. Based on a review of research on taxpaying in the USA, I show this approach offers insight into a disparate set of puzzles about taxation including: why the USA continues to require income tax returns; why anti-tax sentiment persists even at low tax rates; why anti-government conservatives support some social spending; and whether linking taxpaying to citizenship promotes solidarity or racialized hierarchies. Recognizing that taxpaying involves relational work also reveals continuities with other forms of monetary exchange; and supplies evidence that relational work is performed at higher levels of relational abstraction than previously understood. While this article only gestures toward these possibilities, I hope it stimulates future research that fulfills the new fiscal sociology’s aspirations for a cultural sociology of taxation.