---
title: "Tax Cheats"
description: "About eight-in-ten American adults say they consider not reporting all income on one's taxes to be morally wrong."
date: "2009-04-07"
authors:
  - name: "Russell Heimlich"
    job_title: "Former web developer"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/russell-heimlich/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2009/04/07/tax-cheats/"
---

# Tax Cheats

As tens of millions of Americans mail in their tax returns this week, they may be interested to know that eight-in-ten of their fellow citizens (79%) say they consider not reporting all income on one’s taxes to be morally wrong. Just 5% consider it morally acceptable and 14% say it is not a moral issue. The only behavior on a list of possibly immoral behaviors tested in a Pew Research survey that drew more moral condemnation than cheating on one’s taxes was cheating on a spouse. Some 88% say it is morally wrong for married people to have an affair, while 3% say it is morally acceptable and 7% say it is not a moral issue. [Read More](https://www.pewresearch.org/pubs/307/a-barometer-of-modern-morals)