Abstract
The literature provides a list of determinants explaining tax compliance. The aim of our study is to isolate the determinants to which French taxpayers are sensitive and to assess the validity of their tax perceptions. To do this, we ran a survey on perceptions and knowledge among a representative sample of French taxpayers. We show that: (1) the tax burden is perceived as high which is explained by a feeling of unfairness, inefficient use of taxes and excessive complexity; (2) a low level of tax knowledge and (3) a non-monotonic impact of the level of income on the probability of having the feeling of overpaying.