Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Tax Perception and Compliance Behavior in Nekemte Town
Tax Perception and Compliance Behavior in Nekemte Town
by discourage work efforts, encourage tax avoidance and even tax evasion. So what governments can do
in order to increase tax revenue is understanding taxpayers‟ behavior: which requires understanding of
the taxpayers‟ attitudes and the economic and behavioral determinants of tax compliance. Scholars use
five interrelated views about taxation, and these are: economic deterrence, fiscal exchange, social
influences, comparative treatment, and political accountability. In general, the following issues have
been addressed in our study.
How do taxpayers perceive the likelihood of being detected and punished if evading tax?
Do taxpayers‟ attitudes towards taxation depend on their perceptions about the state‟s delivery of
public goods and services?
Are taxpayers‟ tax behavior influenced by their perception of others‟ behavior?
How do taxpayers perceive they are treated by the tax administration relative to other people in their
community?
Is there a relationship between taxpayers‟ perceptions of tax authority‟s accountability and attitudes
towards taxation?
Objective of the Study
Following are the objectives of the study
Determine business taxpayers‟ tax perception
Determine the extent to which business taxpayers comply with the tax system.
Determine the degree to which each of the study variables influences taxpayers‟ tax compliance
behavior.
Review of Related Literatures
What is Tax: The term tax derived from the latin word “taxo” refers to charges imposed by a state or its
functional equivalent upon a taxpayer to generate fund for various public expenditures. It is hard to
come up with a single and pricise definition of tax, the following are possible definations. As per
Selingman, (1895) tax is „a contribution from individuals out of their private property for the
maintenance and defense of government, so that government may perform its functions and the ends of
the state be realized‟. The Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary describe it as „a compulsory
contribution to state revenue, levied by the government on workers' income and business profits, or
added to the cost of some goods, services, and transactions‟. Taylor, (1968) define as as „compulsory
payment to government without expectation of direct return or benefit to taxpayers‟. These definations
tells us, tax necessarily imposed by government through laws and/ or regulations and enforced through
penalties and interests for defaults or late payments; and it takes various forms (such as; income tax,
corporate tax, e.t.c) collected either directly or indirectly. Moreover the taxpayer who pays taxes may not
expect direct personal benefit from the government in a return of his/her tax contribution.
Tax compliance: The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) USA, (2009) defines tax compliance as “the ability
and willingness of taxpayers to comply with tax laws, declare the correct income in each year and pays
the right amount of taxes on time”. In the meantime the question of whether „compliance‟ refers to
voluntary or compulsory behavior is an issue (James & Alley, 2004). Advocators of voluntary tax
compliance like James & Alley, (2004) argue that, the purpose of raising tax is for the public benefit,
therefore it advantageous if compliance is voluntarily and on time. In contrary, scholars such as Feld et
al. (2006) believed that tax compliance is compulsory, by stating the availability of enforcement from tax
authority in case of failure to comply with the rules and late payments. Desta, (2010) defined tax
compliance as “the degree to which taxpayers comply with the tax law” which supports Mc Barnet‟s
(2001) three forms of tax compliance; committed compliance, capitulative compliance and creative
compliance.
Factors Affecting Tax Compliance: This study identified six set of factors which influence tax
compliance such as; economic deterrence, fiscal exchange, social influences, comparative treatment,
political accountability and decomography.
Economic Deterrence is the oldest thought discovered by Becker in the late 1960s. Under economic
deterrence, the decision to comply is based on a cost-benefit analysis in which people rationally weight
the benefits of non-compliance against the probability of detection and penalties for fraud, which
determine the costs (Fjeldstad, et.al, 2012; Milliron and Toy (1988) cited by Devos, (2014). Deterence
may be punitive and persuasive which involves either increasing the probability of detection, increasing
the tax rate and imposing a tougher penalties; or better education, increased publicity and incentives
(Devos, 2014). Results are mixed, Fjeldstad, et.al, (2012); Chau and Leung, (2009) stated that if
2
www.jems.net.in
Journal of Exclusive Management Science – April 2018 - Vol 7 Issue 04 – ISSN 2277-5684
detection is likely and penalties are severe more people will comply with taxes. However Allingham and
Sandmo‟s (1972) stated that certainty of being detected and severity of punishments can be used
interchangeably; while Friedland, et.al, (1978) found that large fines tend to be more effective deterrents
than frequent audits.
According to fiscal exchange theory compliance increases with taxpayers perceptions of the availability
of public goods and services Alm et al. (1992). Nicolaides, (2014) also discussed taxpayers expect some
public goods and services in exchange for their tax contribution. Fjeldstad, et al., (2012) stated that
those public goods and services provided must be valuable for the taxpayers to serve as a motivating
factor for taxpayer compliance. Palil, et al. (2011); Ali, et.al, (2013) found that satisfaction with the
provisions of public goods and services will result more willing tax contributors, while dissatisfaction
cause reducing compliance. Yet, which specific public service provision (i.e roads, electricity, education,
health, ....) motivates citizens for tax compliance differe from country to country (Ali, et.al, 2013).
According to Comparative treatment or Equity theory, tax compliance can be influenced by individuals‟
perception of the fairness of the system that determines the tax rules and tax duties (McKerchar and
Evans, 2009). The study conducted by Ali, et.al, (2013) also shows that in South Africa and Tanzania
tax compliant behavior affected by taxpayer‟s perception of how their ethnic group is treated by the
government. Jackson and Milliron (1986) cited by Chau and Leung, (2009) describe tax fairness with
two dimensions. Which reflected by taxpayers‟ perceptions that they get public goods and services that
can be justified by their tax contribution or in relation to what other taxpayers pay. Those taxpayers
who believe the tax system is fair are more likely to comply with tax.
Snavely (1990) and Cevik, (2014) found that social interactions influence human behavior. As stated by
Fjeldstad, et al., (2012), if a taxpayer knows many people important to him who comply with the taxes,
his/her commitment to comply will be higher. Yankelovich et al. (1984) also reported that, those who
report compliance believe that their peers and friends comply, whereas those who report cheating
believe that others cheat. Chan et al. (2000) also reveals that taxpayers may still commit noncompliance
so long as this noncompliance is consistent with in-group expectations and norms. It indicates that
perceptions about the honesty of others may affect compliance behavior.
Political legitimacy refers to perceptions about the governments and tax authority trustworthiness
(Kirchler et al. 2008). Higher legitimacy for political institutions leads to higher tax compliance (Torgler
and Schneider 2007). The finding by Masuda, et.al, (2014) and Wilks and Pacheco, (2012) shows that
trust in authorities and their capacity to deter and punish tax evaders are interrelated. Moreover, Wilks
and Pacheco, (2012) stated that trust is essential. Trust in government is highly influenced by
perceptions of corruption. As a result corruption must be addressed as a condition. In a country where
citizens believed that bribery and the abuse of power for personal gain were widespread amongst
national politicians and corruption is the serious concern in the country, securing targeted tax revenue
will be impossible, since perception of corruption-eroded compliance. Picur and Riahi-Belkaoui (2006)
find that tax compliance is highest in countries characterized by high control of corruption and low size
of bureaucracy.
Studies also shows that, demographic characteristics of the respondents (such as age, gender, marital
status, education, employment, tax status, income level, etc.) have an impact on citizens‟ tax perception
and compliance behavior (Walsh, 2012; Tittle, 1980; Torgler, 2003; Chan, et.al, 2000 as cited by Palil &
Akir, 2013)
Methodology
The study is descriptive in nature since it measures the extent of tax perception and behavior; of
courseit answers why people comply with tax thus we can say that it is also causal. The study was
conducted on 263 respondents‟ being selected from 3149 business taxpayers in Nekemte Town (as of
October 2014, there were 570 category A, 280 category B, and 2341 category C tax payers in Nekemte
as per the data taken from Ethiopian Revenue and Customs authority, Nekemte) through convenience
sampling technique using Cochran (1977) formula as cited in (Bartlett, et al., 2001).
To meet the research objectives, a cross sectional survey has been carried out and particularly it was
questionnaire being used to collect data from respondents. The items for the instrument were adapted
from Afrobarometer Round 5 (2012) instruments which is considered as a more comprehensive
empirical analysis of taxation theory in African societies. We were used enumerators with excellent
Amharic and Afan Oromo language proficiency and our pilot test shows a Cronbach‟s alpha score which
makes the instrument more reliable. The collected data were analyzed through descriptive statistics (i.e
frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation) and of course Ordinal logistic regression was
used to determine why business owners pay taxes.
3
www.jems.net.in
Journal of Exclusive Management Science – April 2018 - Vol 7 Issue 04 – ISSN 2277-5684
Measurement
Asking taxpayers directly whether they refuse to pay taxes that they owed to the government during the
last years so as to measure their tax compliance attitude and behavior is not the proper way, since
individuals tend to answer untruthfully when asked questions about sensitive issues. Tax compliance
attitude in Afro barometric round five instruments (the measure from which we adopted the instrument)
use an indirectly phrased question to capture tax compliance attitude in order to avoid direct
implication of “wrongdoing” by the respondent. The instrument ask respondents to state whether they
think it is “not wrong at all”, “wrong, but understandable” or “wrong and punishable” for people not to
pay taxes on their income. Based on these responses, individuals were considered as having a tax
compliant attitude if their response is “wrong and punishable‟‟ and non-compliant attitude if their
response is either “not wrong at all” or “wrong, but understandable”. Such a measure was believed the
best way of dealing with behavioral issues Reinikka and Svensson (2006); Hug and Spörri (2011),
Torgler (2004; 2005) and Daude and Melguizo (2010) (Ali, et.al 2013). Beside the ordinal logistic
regression model were applied to determine the probability of being tax compliant as predicted by the
study variables.
𝑃𝑟𝑜𝑏𝑎𝑏𝑖𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑜𝑓 𝑇𝑎𝑥 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑖𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒 = 𝛼𝑜 + 𝛽1 𝐸𝑐𝑜𝐷𝑒𝑡 + 𝛽2 𝐹𝑖𝑠𝐸𝑥 + 𝛽3 𝑆𝑜𝑐𝐼𝑛𝑓 + 𝛽4 𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑇𝑟𝑒 + 𝛽5 𝑃𝑜𝑙𝐴𝑐𝑐 + 𝜀
Where:
EcoDet = Economic Deterrence
FisEx = Fiscal Exchange
SocInf = Social Influence
ComTre = Comparative Treatment
PolAcc= Political Accountability
ε = error term
Results and Discussions
Participants were business taxpayers in Nekemte City. 263 questionnaire were distributed ofwhich 234
were found complete and useable.156 (67%) of the participants were male, they range in age from 18 to
61 (Mean = 33 years). The majority describing themselves as Oromo123 (52.6%) and Guragie54 (23.1%),
with other business tax payers describing themselves as Amhara, Tigrie and others. More than half of
the study respondents are “Category C” taxpayers‟ 55.1%, followed by “Category B” and “Category A”
taxpayers‟ accounts for 21.4%, and 19.7% accordingly. The significant proportion of business taxpayers
have little schooling, 26.9% completed grade 10/12, 16.2 % have some secondary school, 15.8% some
primary those who participated in higher education (either in Colleges or Universities) only 14.1% and
12% have no formal schooling at all.
Affordability problem, high tax rate, unfair tax system and poor public goods and services are what
taxpayers think the main reasons for avoiding tax in NekemteCity. The study conducted by Ali, et.al,
(2013) and Aiko, (2013) also demonstrate high tax rate, unaffordability of the tax charged, and poor
public services are the top three reasons taxpayers stated as major reasons for tax avoidance. To assess
whether business taxpayers understand the role of their tax contributions for the country‟s
development, the researchers raise the issue of “Citizens must pay taxes vs. no need to tax the people
for the country to develop”. The broad majorities (91.55%) say citizens should pay their taxes to
government "for the country to develop" only 8.45% think, government should find resources for
development from other sources.
In the study, respondents are also asked the legitimacy of Ethiopian Revenues and Tax Authority to
collect tax, and how easy it is to find out how government spends taxes and fees collected. The result
shows that 83.34% of the respondents believed that Ethiopian Revenues and Tax Authority have
legitimate right to collecting taxes from people, but the significant proportion (42.3%) of the respondents
find it difficult to find out how those monies are being used government.
Mean, S.D and Correlations among the study variables
Business taxpayers‟ tax compliance behavior in Nekemte city is attractive as the mean result is close to
the positive one which, „not paying tax is wrong and punishable‟. The study also revealed that business
taxpayers have positive tax perception, which tilted to the maximum one. Moreover, the Pearson
correlations coefficient explains that, economic deterrence, social influence, tax knowledge, and non-
state actors‟ have statistically significant correlation with tax compliance behavior (see appendix 1).
4
www.jems.net.in
Journal of Exclusive Management Science – April 2018 - Vol 7 Issue 04 – ISSN 2277-5684
5
www.jems.net.in
Journal of Exclusive Management Science – April 2018 - Vol 7 Issue 04 – ISSN 2277-5684
Bibliography
Ali, M., Fjeldstad, O.-H., &Sjursen, I. H. (2013). To Pay or Not To Pay? Citizens‟ Attitudes towards
Taxation in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa. Afrobarometer Working Papers, Working Paper
No. 143.
Allingham, M. G., &Sandmo, A. (1972). Income tax evasion: a theoretical analysis. Journal of Public
Economics, 1, 323-338.
Alm, J., Mcclelland, G. H., McClelland, & Schulze, W. D. (1992). Why Do People Pay Taxes? Journal of
Public Economics 48 (1992) 21-38. North-Holland.
Çevik, S. (2014). Tax Morale in Socio-Political Interactions: Insiders and Outsiders. Journal of Applied
Business and Economics vol. 16(3) 2014 101.
Chau, G., & Leung, P. (2009). A critical review of Fischer tax compliance model: A research synthesis.
Journal of Accounting and Taxation Vol.1 (2), pp. 034-040, July, 2009.
Desta, K. W. (2010). Assessment of Taxpayers‟ Voluntary Compliance with Taxation: A Case of Mekelle
City, Tigray, Ethiopia.
Devos, K. (2014). Factors Influencing Individual Taxpayer Compliance Behavior. Springer Science
Business Media Dordrecht.
Feld, L. P.; Frey, B. S. &Torgler, B. (2006), Rewarding Honest Taxpayers? In Managing and Maintaining
Compliance, Elffers, H. &WimHusiman, Den Haag: Boom Legal Publishers
Fjeldstad, O.-H. (February 2013). Taxation and development: A review of donor support to strengthen
tax systems in developing countries. WIDER Working Paper No. 2013/010.
Fjeldstad, O.-H., Schulz-Herzenberg, C., &Sjursen, I. H. (2012). Peoples‟ views of taxation in Africa: A
review of research on determinants of tax compliance. Chr. Michelsen Institute working paper.
Friedland, n., maital, s., &rutenberg, a. (1978). A simulation study of income tax evasion. Journal of
public economics 10 (1978) 107-116. 0 north-Holland publishing company.
I. M. F (October 2013). IMF Country Report No. 13/308, The Federal Democratic Republic Of Ethiopia,
2013 Article IV Consultation. Washington, D.C.: International Monetary Fund Publication Services.
GTP, (June 2012). Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, Growth and Transformation Plan
(2010/11-2014/15) Annual Progress Report for F.Y. 2010/11. Addis Ababa.
Islahi, A. A. (3-5 November 2006). IbnKhaldun‟s Theory of Taxation and Its Relevance Today. The
IbnKhaldun Conference. Madrid, SPAIN: The Islamic Research and Training Institute.
James, S., & Alley, C. (2004). Tax Compliance, Self-Assessment and Tax Administration. Journal of
Finance and Management in Public Services. Volume 2 Number 2.
Kirchler, E., Hoelzl, E., & Wahl, I. (2008). Enforced versus voluntary tax compliance: The „„slippery
slope‟‟ framework. Journal of Economic Psychology 29 (2008) 210–225.
Mas‟uda, A., Manafb, N. A., &Saadb, N. (2014). Do trust and power moderate each other in relation to
tax compliance? Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 164 (2014) 49 – 54.
McKerchar, M. & C. Evans 2009. Sustaining growth in developing economies through improved
taxpayer compliance: Challenges for policy makers and revenue authorities. eJournal of Tax Research,
7, 171‐ 201.
Nicolaides, P. (2014). Tax Compliance, Social Norms and Institutional Quality: An Evolutionary Theory
of Public Good Provision. European Commission, Taxation papers WORKING PAPER N.46 - 2014.
Palil, M. R., &Akir, M. R. (2013). The Perception of Tax Payers on Tax Knowledge and Tax Education
with Level of Tax Compliance: A Study the Influences of Religiosity. ASEAN Journal of Economics,
Management and Accounting 1 (1): 118-129 (June 2013) ISSN 2338-9710.
Selingman, E. R. (1895). Essays in Taxation. New York: Macmillan and Co. and London.
Snavely, K. 1990. Governmental policies to reduce tax evasion: coerced behavior versus services and
values development. Policy Sciences, 23, 57-72.
Taylor, P. E. (1968). The Economies of Public Finance. Oxford and IBH publishing Co.
Tittle, C. (1980). Sanctions and Social Deviance: The Question of Deterrence. New York
Torgler, B. (2003). Tax Morale: Theory and Empirical Analysis of Tax Compliance, Dissertation; Der
Universität Basel.
Walsh, K. (2012). Understanding Taxpayer Behavior – New Opportunities for Tax Administration.
Wilks, D. C., & Pacheco, L. (2012). Tax compliance, corruption and deterrence: An application of the
slippery model. UniversidadePortucalense.
Yankelovich, Skelly & White 1984. Taxpayer attitudes study: Final report. Public opinion survey
prepared for the Internal Revenue Services. Washington, DC: Internal Revenue Service,U.S. Department
of the Treasury.
6
www.jems.net.in
Journal of Exclusive Management Science – April 2018 - Vol 7 Issue 04 – ISSN 2277-5684
Mean Std. D
1 Tax Compliance (3) 2.86 .431 1
2 Political legitimacy
2.79 1.185 -.027 1
Trust (4)
3 Corruption (4) 2.86 .823 .041 .476** 1
8 Public Service(5) 3.38 .773 .028 .351** .356** .379** .055 .360** .585** 1
9 Crime Conflict(5) 4.55 .614 -.086 .230** .320** .072 -.075 .410** .311** .365** 1
10 VAT 1.68 .469 .006 .092 -.002 -.004 .18** -.106 -.087 -.045 -.107 1
11 Economic Deterrence
3.41 .836 .557** -.146* -.063 -.116 .029 -.026 -.138* -.095 -.054 .028 1
Difficulty of evading tax (4)
12 Comparative Treatment
3.17 .905 .055 -.120 -.029 .267** .108 -.046 -.005 .225** .091 -.246** .049 1
group unfair treatment (4)
13 Social Influence
3.25 .891 .291** .117 .172* .274** .155* .108 .129 .281** -.025 -.112 .143* .303** 1
Compliance of others (4)
14 Knowledge about taxes
Difficulty finding out what 2.76 1.092 .234** -.056 .057 .217** .007 -.023 .043 .101 -.061 .058 .113 -.053 .077 1
taxes to pay (4)
7
www.jems.net.in
Journal of Exclusive Management Science – April 2018 - Vol 7 Issue 04 – ISSN 2277-5684
8
www.jems.net.in
Journal of Exclusive Management Science – April 2018 - Vol 7 Issue 04 – ISSN 2277-5684
McFadden .654
Link function:
Complementary Log-
log.
9
www.jems.net.in