Bankrate.com's Survey Spills The Beans on Who's Cheating and Who's Not.Business Editors NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 16, 2003 Did you cheat on your taxes? You say you didn't, but half your neighbors may think you did. A survey commissioned by Bankrate.com found that, on average, Americans believe that about half of taxpayers have at some time tweaked the tax truth on their 1040s. Of course, the overwhelming majority of the 1,025 people who responded to the national survey by RoperASW said they weren't among the tax cheats. Only 13 percent of them said they "fudged" the truth on their taxes to deprive the Internal Revenue Service of its full due. Self-proclaimed honesty and cynicism about fellow citizens are spread equally throughout the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. . Both genders, all ages and all incomes, in all regions of the country, were strikingly similar in their answers. But there were a few differences. -- Women were slightly more likely to say they were honest: 88 percent said "no" when asked if they ever fudged their taxes, compared to 83 percent of men. -- Those 50-64 years of age are much more likely than their younger (18-49 year old) and older (65+ year old) counterparts to admit that they personally have ever "fudged" their taxes. About 23 percent of the 50-64-year-olds said "yes," they had at some time deprived the IRS An abbreviation for the Internal Revenue Service, a federal agency charged with the responsibility of administering and enforcing internal revenue laws. of its full due. -- Half of Americans (50%) believe at least 40% of people have "fudged" the truth on their taxes. One in four (25%) believe at least 70% of Americans have done this at some point. Does this mean that some filers really do take Uncle Sam Uncle Sam, name used to designate the U.S. government. The term arose in the War of 1812 and seems at first to have been used derisively by those opposed to the war. Possibly it was an expansion of the letters "U.S. for more of a ride at tax time, or are some people just more honest about it? That's a question for another poll. Here's what we asked: 1. "What percentage of people do you think have ever "fudged" the truth, even a little bit, on their taxes -- by doing things such as overstating how much money they donated to charity? The mean answer: 49 percent 2. What about you personally, have you ever "fudged" the truth even a little bit on your taxes -- again by doing things such as overstating how much money you donated to charity? The answers: Yes, 13 percent; no, 86 percent. The remainder didn't know or declined to answer. The survey was conducted April 11-13 and has a 95 percent confidence level and a margin of error of +/-3 percentage points About Bankrate, Inc. Bankrate, Inc. (Nasdaq:RATE) owns and operates Bankrate.com, the Internet's leading consumer banking marketplace. Bankrate.com averages 4 million unique visitors A count of how many different people access a Web site. For example, if a user leaves and comes back to the site five times during the measurement period, that person is counted as one unique visitor, but would count as five "user sessions. per month, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. comScore Media Metrix, which ranks Bankrate.com first in unique visitors in the "Financial information and advice" category. Bankrate.com reviews more than 4,800 financial institutions in more than 180 markets in 50 states. Bankrate.com is a destination site of personal finance channels, including banking, investing, taxes and small business finance. It is the leading aggregator of 191 financial products, including mortgages, credit cards, new and used auto loans, money market accounts and CDs, checking and ATM fees, home equity loans and online banking fees. Bankrate.com provides financial applications and information to a network of more than 80 partners including America Online (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : AOL (A division of Time Warner, Inc., New York, NY, www.aol.com) The world's largest online information service with access to the Internet, e-mail, chat rooms and a variety of databases and services. ), Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO YHOO Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ symbol) ), The Wall Street Journal (NYSE: DJ) and The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times (NYSE: NYT NYT New York Times NYT National Youth Theatre (UK) NYT New York Transit (New York, USA) NYT New York Tribune ). Bankrate.com's information is also distributed through more than 100 national and state publications. |
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