Tax Obedience in COVID Times: A Role Play Illustrating Tax Policy Dilemmas

Bringing theory to life has always been the aim of educators. Teachers in all subjects and institutions struggle with the need to convey theoretic concepts to a varied group, hoping to foster curiosity and maintain interest. We often search for didactic tools that may mediate between theory and its implementation. The need for such pedagogy is even greater with complex issues such as tax laws and policies. Teaching this subject matter requires a deep understanding of the values underlining each policy choice, the political and economic interests involved as well as the social, political and economic implications of these laws. Equipping students with this knowledge and understanding is our responsibility as teachers. Awareness of the purposes of tax laws and the values underlining them may improve their functioning as citizens and taxpayers. Tax laws involve highly technical aspects which may frustrate and even bore some of the students. For these reasons, an innovative pedagogy is required. Our article shares a positive experience of using role-playing in tax law studies. The article describes experiences from Zefat Academic College School of Law in Israel: an example of a roleplay illustrating universal challenges of tax avoidance faced by tax regimes globally due to of COVID-19. Tax payment is a major civil duty in a modern state. Broad tax avoidance undermines governance. Tax obedience is affected by several factors, including the overall tax burden and the ratio between it and income; enforcement effectiveness; and taxpayers' understanding and identification with tax-paying importance. (Lesnik et al, 2014). In times of severe economic crises, the temptation to avoid tax payments grows. It may emanate from financial difficulties taxpayers face, from taking advantage of the crisis or express protest against a government's manner of handling it. In crises, tax authorities can avoid strict enforcement of tax laws. However, such reluctance could encourage ongoing tax avoidance. (Brondolo, 2009). Moreover, giving up tax enforcement in times of crisis is distortive, undermines equality, and harms the tax base establishment in the medium term. Alternatively, the tax authorities can improve communication with taxpayers, demonstrate flexibility in terms of payments, relieves, etc., and focus enforcement in areas where disobedience implies the greatest risk to tax collection. The role play simulates in class this decision-making process, discussing the cases of three disobedient taxpayers, in different circumstances. The students represent the interest groups involved and affected by the policy, and role-play their negotiations and argumentation with the tax authority and in court. The article describes the simulation, the considerations that led its initiators in its design and conduct, as well as the analysis of its didactic values (including fostering inter-disciplinarity, creativeness, integration of knowledge from other courses, working in diverse groups, policy advocacy, and more) in light of relevant literature. Although it was not conducted as a scientific experiment, we appreciate the value of disseminating the knowledge accumulated in the process among educators and thus invite our colleagues globally into our experiences and insights.