LINGUISTIC STRATEGIES EMPLOYED AS TAX EVASION DEVICES IN PAKISTAN: A FORENSIC LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS

Abstract

Tax evasion is a fiscal crime which is carried out through the thoughtful action of escaping from obeying the due tax compulsions, subsequently resulting in giving substantial economic loss to the domestic economy. As part of the continuous rather multifaceted problem in Pakistan, it positions as a severe hazard to the financial freedom and steadiness thus weakens the economic integrity of the country. This study pursues to scrutinize the language based scopes of the issue of tax evasion in Pakistan with the help of the forensic linguistic apparatus, through illustration of data from the two main sources. The first in this regard is the administrative source that comprises of fifty taxes related cases, along with the related financial forms and official documents of legal measures introduced by the tax monitoring authorities in accordance with the legal procedures. The second source in this way contains overtly available legal judgements on tax associated cases, retrieved from the official websites of concerned legal organizations. The study employs a Corpus-Based Forensic Linguistics methodology to investigate the data, employing LancsBox which is powerful corpus software for the quantitative investigation of the linguistic patterns. The findings reveal that tax related discourse is marked by distinctive linguistic and rhetorical strategies. These include the strategic use of deceptive language and subtle discursive maneuvers employed by the individuals to obscure or manipulate financial realities and contribute to fiscal crimes. The analysis uncover the dimensions of linguistic techniques that reflect intentional ambiguity, obfuscation, and rhetorical framing tactics that contribute to the concealment of tax liabilities and the broader phenomenon of financial deception.