248 Copyright © 2016, IGI Global. Copying or distributing in print or electronic forms without written permission of IGI Global is prohibited. Chapter 12 DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0053-7.ch012 ABSTRACT The volatility of the global economic market and the ferce competition in attracting foreign investments have determined European and MENA authorities to reconsider interactions with taxpayers. Thus, ben- eftting from international assistance, authorities have started implementing tax strategies and models like co-operative compliance, horizontal monitoring, whistleblowing. This empirical investigation is grounded on the “slippery slope” framework that attempts to solve the “riddle of tax compliance” via trust in and power of authorities. The former is proxied by “Trust in national government” (Gallup World Poll), the latter by “Rule of law” (World Bank). The two-step cluster analysis run on 215 countries worldwide, including 35 from Europe, 12 from MENA, yielded four tax climates: trust and power high (T+P+), trust and power low (T-P-), trust high-power low (T+P-), trust low-power high (T-P+). While the majority of European countries are spread between T+P+ and T-P+, MENA countries generally belong to T-P-, demanding stability and efciency in all major areas of the societies. INTRODUCTION Some of the first connections between Europe and the region referred nowadays as MENA have been established during the exploratory voyages undertaken by Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta. The former, born in 1254’s Europe (Venice, Italy), had made the Far East known to the Europeans by virtue of the volume he signed and released in 1298 “Book of the Marvels of the World” or “Description of the World.” The journeys depicted in the book had surged Europeans’ desire of reaching the remote worlds. The latter, born in 1304’s MENA (Tangier, Morocco), had made Europe known to inhabitants of Northern Africa, Arabia, Persia. Tax Compliance Behavior: An Upshot of Trust in and Power of Authorities across Europe and MENA Larissa Batrancea Babes-Bolyai University, Romania Anca Nichita Romanian Academy, Romania Ioan Batrancea Babes-Bolyai University, Romania Erich Kirchler University of Vienna, Austria