Tax Evasion between Legality and Criminal Offense

As a complex phenomenon that occurs as a response of the taxpayer in relation to the state coercion action, tax evasion is a disputed topic both in legal sciences and economic ones branch, being analyzed by the economic law. The purpose of this paper is to prove that tax evasion takes place at the line between licit and illicit activities. To achieve the purpose of the paper we shall use a basic fundamental research, making use of an inductive strategy, namely, observation, and a comparative one, namely historical-comparative and longitudinal, in order to observe the difference in views between the European and national legislator regarding the way to address tax evasion. Involving a question of morality, tax evasion occurs due to purely hedonistic interest of any natural or legal person for profit. Based on various causes (economic, political, legal, psychological), tax evasion should be observed somewhere between tax havens and its criminal character. Efforts to combat tax evasion, expressed in rigorous and stringent regulations take on international forms (FATCA), regional (Savings Tax Directive in 2003 at EU level) and national (Law no. 241/2005 on preventing and combating tax evasion in Romania). The perception of the citizens on tax evasion, its effects on each individual and on the economy in general take different forms of control or acceptance of tax evasion. (C) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.