Feeling Tax: How Emotions Shape Compliance Through the Lens of the MINDSPACE Framework

Description

Emotions are not incidental to tax policy, they are integral. From anxiety at the thought of an audit to the quiet pride of meeting obligations, taxpayers’ emotional states affect how they interpret messages, make decisions and respond to enforcement. The MINDSPACE framework, developed to guide behaviourally informed policymaking, includes ‘Affect’ as one of its central features, yet this component remains underutilised in tax scholarship and administration.