Gaming the Tax to Enable Students to Learn About Tax Ethics

This study examines the pedagogical impact of a gamified, experiential learning simulation on student learning about tax ethics. The goal is to assess whether an experiential simulation has an impact on student learning and understanding of tax behavior. The authors ascertain which aspect (active experimentation [AE], concrete experience [CE], reflective observation, or abstract conceptualization) of the simulation is likely to have the most significant effect on learning outcomes. The authors used an interactive, professor-designed tax simulation where assigned roles (state, global taxpayer, and local taxpayer) enable business students to make tax behavior decisions as well as observe the consequences of these actions on themselves and on others. The results demonstrate that the AE in the tax simulation has a significant impact on the ethical attitude toward tax. The authors’ favored interpretation of this effect is that facing the dilemma between initial personal value, tax behavior in practice, and the economic consequence leads students to reassess their attitude toward tax. The authors find that the most powerful dimension within the experiential learning theory (ELT) framework is CE, as being in the position to make decisions is critical. The implications of these findings are that, when designing experiential tax simulations, it is crucial to incorporate decision-making activities for a better understanding of tax ethical considerations.