The central question of this study is when do politicians keep their promises? Using two unique panel datasets, the Norwegian Citizens Panel and the Panel of Elected Representatives in Norway, I estimate the association between positional views on income taxation among politicians at the time of election, and their tax policy support during their mandate. I find that when voters are keen to punish politicians for not implementing their promises, the elected representatives are more likely to have congruent implementation of the policies that they have promised at the time of election. These effects are even stronger among those representatives that are in government. However, when politicians undermine their voter’s willingness to punish, they are more likely to change their positional view on taxation during the term. These findings have relevant implications on the link between voters’ attitudes to punish and congruent policy position of the elected representatives during their term.