Taxation and household behavior: Analyzing the impact of tax policies on savings and spending decisions
Keywords:
behavioral economics, financial planning, household savings, tax policyAbstract
Taxation is important as it gives the government income and also effects how individuals make their financial decisions. This study, “Taxation and Household Behavior: Analyzing the Effect of Taxes on Savings and Spending Habits”, looks at the ways that tax rules in India, especially Andhra Pradesh, influence individual decisions about saving and spending. Through studying responses from 180 participants, the research determines that taxes have major effects on how people decide what to do financially by means of incentives, price changes and other influences. According to the findings, knowing about taxes encourages more people to save and using instruments like PPF and ELSS is seen as very helpful. Both mental accounting and framing effects explain other reasons why taxpayers might not always behave rationally. Based on the study, when tax policies are developed using behavioral and fairness considerations, they help families save money, build future plans and withstand economic ups and downs. The study helps fill missing data on taxation and its effect on behavior in Indian households, offering policy proposals that support inclusive financial growth.
Downloads
References
[1] Weekly, Vol. 7, No. 4, November 1972, pp. 2235-2250. “Direct Tax Reform–A Critical Evaluation of Task Force Paper”, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 37, No. 48, November 2002, pp. 4765-4770.
[2] Das-Gupta, A. 1990. “Personal Taxation and Private Financial Savings in India,” Economic & Political Weekly, 25(6): 325–338.
[3] Engen, E.M., W.G. Gale, and J.K. Scholz. 1996. “The Illusory Effects of Saving Incentives on Saving,” Journal of Economic Perspectives, 10(4): 113–138.
[4] Bernheim, B.D. 2002. “Taxation and Saving,” in A. Auerbach and M. Feldstein (eds.), Handbook of Public Economics, Vol. 3, Chapter 18, pp. 1173–1249. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science B.V.
[5] Bhide, S. V. (2013). A Study Of Awareness Of Tax Planning Amongst Salaried Assessees . International Journal Of Research In Computer Application & Management , 3 (12).
[6] Bhide, S. V. (2013). A Study Of Awareness Of Tax Planning Amongst Salaried Assessees . International Journal Of Research In Computer Application & Management , 3 (12).
[7] Szarowská, I. (2014). Personal Income Taxation in a Context of a Tax Structure. Procedia Economics and Finance , 662-669.
[8] Kumari, A. (2014). PERSONAL INCOME TAX STRUCTURE IN INDIA: AN EVALUATION. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RESEARCH IN COMMERCE, IT & MANAGEMENT , 4 (9), 60-64.
[9] Chetty, R., J.N. Friedman, S. Leth-Petersen, T.H. Nielsen, and T. Olsen (2014). “Active vs. Passive Decisions and Crowd-Out in Retirement Savings Accounts: Evidence from Denmark,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 129(3): 1141–1219
[10] Ameyaw, B., Addai, B., Ashalley, E., & Quaye, I. (2015). The Effects of Personal Income Tax Evasion on Socio-economic Development in Ghana: A Case Study of the Informal Sector . British Journal of Economics, Management & Trade , 10 (4), 1-14.
[11] Jhaveri, N.J., “Income Tax Concession and Choice of Financial Assets”, Economic and Political Xin, M. K., Khai, K. G., Fong, L. S., & Chen, N. H. (2015). Factors Affecting Individual Taxpayers’ Compliance In Malaysian Tax Filing System . The International Journal Of Business & Management , 3 (9), 339-347.
[12] Ghuge, N. R. and Katdare, V. V. (2016). A Comparative Study of Tax Structure of India with respect to other countries, Proceedings of the International Conference on Global Trends in Engineering, Technology and Management (ICGTETM-2016) (pp. 334-338). Retrieved from www.ijettjournal.org/Special%20issue/ICGTETM.../ICGTETM_2016_paper_98.pdf
[13] Johnson, A. B., & Miller, C. D. (2016). Behavioral Economics and Taxation: Insights for Policymakers. Policy Brief, No. 202.
[14] Badarinza, Cristian, Vimal Balasubramaniam, and Tarun Ramadorai. 2016. “The Indian Household Finance Landscape,” India Policy Forum, Vol. 13, 2016–17.
[15] Arora, M., & Gupta, H. P. (2017). Reflection of Tax Saving Behaviour on Individual Income Tax Assesses. Pacific Business Review International , 4(1)
[16] Williams, L. C. (2017). Tax Policy and Consumer Behavior: Case Studies and Policy Implications. Taxation and Public Finance, 42(1), 35-56.
[17] Peterson, L. H., & Wilson, E. R. (2017). The Impact of Consumption Taxes on Consumer Choices: A Comparative Analysis. Journal of Public Economics, 40(1), 87-105.
[18] Arora, M., & Gupta, H. P. (2017). Reflection of Tax Saving Behaviour on Individual Income Tax Assesses. Pacific Business Review International , 4(1)
[19] World Bank. (2018). Taxation Policies and Economic Development: A Global Perspective. World Development Report, 453-478.
[20] Smith, J. A. (2018). Taxation and Consumption Behavior: A Review of Empirical Studies. Journal of Economic Research, 45(3), 257-278.
[21] Lee, H. S. (2018). Consumption Taxes and Cross-Border Shopping: International Perspectives. International Journal of Economics and Finance, 54(1), 42-63.
[22] Brown, S. P., & Davis, R. E. (2018). The Psychology of Taxation: How Mental Accounting Shapes Spending Decisions. Journal of Behavioral Economics, 22(3), 301-318.
[23] Johnson, M. P. (2019). Theoretical Frameworks for Analyzing the Impact of Taxes on Consumer Spending. Economic Studies, 72(2), 165-188.
[24] United States Department of the Treasury. (2019). Taxation and Economic Behavior: A Comprehensive Study. Government Report, Publication No. 789-456.
[25] International Monetary Fund. (2020). Taxation Reforms and Their Impact on Household Spending: A Cross-Country Analysis. IMF Working Paper, WP/20/127.
[26] Brown, S. R. (2020). Behavioral Economics and Taxation: An Overview. Journal of Behavioral Economics, 35(4), 401-423.
[27] Income Taxation and Savings Behavior: An Analysis of the Permanent Income Hypothesis. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 52(3), 302-320.
[28] National Bureau of Economic Research. (2021). Taxation and Household Savings: Evidence from a Longitudinal Study. Working Paper No.2500.
[29] Economic Policy Institute. (2022). Taxation, Income Inequality, and Consumer Spending: An Overview. Retrieved from https://www.epi.org/publication/taxation-income-inequality-consumer-spending-overview/.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 The International tax journal

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.