The Attitude to Islamic Taxation in Russia: Does Financial Ethics Matter?

In this paper, the authors have raised and tested a set of questions concerning the essence of the Islamic taxation model in relation to taxpayers' financial ethics. The main question of the research addresses key factors, which determine the advisability of introducing a special socially oriented tax with signs of zakat in the opinion of persons with low-level awareness of the Islamic tax system (the case of Russia). To challenge this question, it was considered appropriate to conduct a survey. Relevant factors were revealed by means of ordinal logit modeling. It was proved that the corresponding loyalty positively relates to the following statements: a) an individual should regularly donate a part of his income to support the socially vulnerable categories of the population; b) administrating socially oriented taxes should be the responsibility of special non-governmental organizations with publicly available and transparent reporting; c) any socially oriented expenditures should be taken into account in the personal income tax. The chances to support the abovementioned special tax are significantly higher for younger students. In summary, there is a clear interconnection between financial ethics and opportunities to implement the Islamic tax model. It should be noted that Islamic taxation, focused on personal and social responsibility of taxpayers, creates for them maximum convenience and ensures their involvement and commitment. In our opinion, these aspects need to be taken into account in the traditional tax administration. Therefore, we believe that in the question of an effective taxation, financial ethics really matters.