Abstract. The fiscal behavior of taxpayers in a state that wants economic development is a subject of major importance. The tax system is one of the main tools by which a state exercises sovereignty through the collection, allocation and redistribution of revenues, in a given territory. This paper aims to highlight how the tax systems’ characteristics, the human development and the effectiveness of the governmental actions affect the economic environment and hence taxpayers’ behavior in the Member States of the European Union. To achieve this goal, indicators from the 28 Member States of the European Union and for the period 1999-2010 were used in the study. Starting with an analysis of panel data models, developed using a range of independent variables (fiscal freedom, government effectiveness, human development index) and tax evasion as a dependent variable, the study has 3 econometric models that analyze the influences implicated.

Keywords: fiscal behavior, tax evasion, fiscal freedom, government effectiveness, human development.