This study aims to investigate whether aggressive corporate tax avoidance and tax evasion have an impact on recruitment success through job seekers’ job pursuit intentions, comparing the intentions of non-tax-specialized with tax-specialized job seekers.
An online experiment was conducted with 439 final-year students from five Belgian universities. Participants evaluated a hypothetical company’s tax strategy and assessed their job pursuit intentions using a validated scale.
Tax evasion significantly decreases job pursuit intentions, emphasizing legality as a key reference point for job seekers. Although tax avoidance is generally not as detrimental as tax evasion, it can still pose risks to recruitment success, particularly through a reduced propensity to recommend the organization to others. No significant differences emerged between tax and nontax students.
This study extends prior studies on the reputational costs of corporate tax aggressiveness, which mainly explored consumer and investor reactions, by examining its effects on job seekers.
