Unmasking Ethical Bias in Tax Behavior: A Study of Machiavellian Traits, Emotional Intelligence, and Love of Money

Dien Noviany Rahmatika (Universitas Pancasakti Tegal)

PERMANA : Jurnal Perpajakan, Manajemen, dan Akuntansi
Vol. 17 No. 2 (2025): August

This study employs a behavioral accounting perspec­tive to analyze the influence of Machiavellian Traits and emotional intelligence on ethical attitudes toward tax evasion, with love of money as a mediating variable. Using purposive sampling of 100 accounting students from three universities in Central Java who had completed auditing and taxation courses, data were analyzed using PLS-SEM. Results indicate that Machiavellian Traits, emotional intel­li­gence, and money attachment significantly influence ethical judgments regarding tax evasion. Love of money was found to mediate the relationship between Machiavellian Traits and emotional intelligence with ethical assessments. This triadic model demonstrates that ethical tax decisions are influenced by personality traits, value systems, and cognitive factors. The findings provide implications for ethics education, behavioral tax policy, and designing com­pliance frameworks that consider individual psychological profiles, challenging conventional assumptions and expan­ding existing knowledge boundaries.