The paper analyzes the perceived burden of income tax, estimating an ordered logit model with the JGSS micro-data. Income and social status as the ability to carry the tax burden, among a few others, are shown to significantly affect how heavy people feel their tax is. More interestingly, the self-employed are found to feel less so than the others, in line with allegations of unfairness among job categories. The perceived burden was increased for low-income individuals between 2000 and 2001 and reduced for upper- and middle-income individuals between 2003 and 2005, which could be a manifestation of “the polarizing society.”
