Following Jackson and Hatfield (2005) and Highhouse and Yuce (1996), the taxpayer perceptions
in this study are manipulated by communicating penalty provisions for noncompliance.
Accordingly, when taxpayers in the loss domain are made aware of the penalties for noncompliance,
they will no longer view under-reporting as an "opportunity" but consider it a "threat" and,
therefore, increase their compliance. On the other hand, taxpayers in the gain domain (who are
already conservative) will show no significant change in behavior when made aware of penalties
for noncompliance (see Figure 1). They are already compliant. Thus, our final hypothesis is as
follows:
H4: Revenue State and Sanction Effect: The sanction manipulation will be more effective
among taxpayers in the declining revenue state than among those with increasing
revenues.