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This chapter investigates the effects of the corporate sector on the effectiveness of selected tax compliance instruments in the context of large corporate taxpayers belonging to the finance, manufacturing, and service sectors. Applying multilevel logit models based on real tax office and survey data from Bangladesh, it is found that the filing compliance of large corporate taxpayers is influenced by penalty, tax audit, and taxpayer services, while reporting compliance is influenced by tax audit, criminal prosecution, and tax simplification. In the case of payment compliance, two coercive instruments – penalty and tax audit – have been found to be statistically significant. However, when sector characteristics are considered, the extent of the influence of these instruments, and, in some cases, their statistical significance changes. This suggests that the effectiveness of tax compliance instruments, among other things, largely depends on the sector affiliation of corporate taxpayers. Overall, this study establishes that corporate sector plays an important role in the effectiveness of tax compliance instruments, with the caveat that findings might be different if working definitions of the study variables were measured differently.

This chapter applies an “integrative” model to examine the impact and interaction of economic and moral/social factors in the corporate tax compliance context. More specifically, it examines whether social norms moderate the effect of economic factors in this context.

Fifty-five MBA students assumed corporate CFO roles and analyzed a proposed aggressive corporate tax shelter transaction (“tax shelter”). Participants indicated whether they would recommend the tax shelter and answered questions regarding the transaction and their corporate tax compliance views.

Hierarchical Regression results indicate that, in the corporate tax compliance context, decision makers’ norms (moral/social factors) moderate the effect of perceived expected value of aggressive tax transactions (economic factors). More specifically, results indicate that (1) perceived legality of aggressive corporate tax transactions significantly impacts willingness of corporate decision makers to recommend them, even when controlling for perceived economic effect of the transaction, and (2) due to moral/social factors, corporate decision makers often may not support aggressive tax treatments with material positive expected values.

Accordingly, (1) custom and social factors should be integrated into the corporate tax compliance decision-making framework, and (2) campaigns to strengthen corporate tax compliance should focus on the law’s text and intent as well as upon sanctions for noncompliance.

The pervasiveness of tax non-compliance remains a serious concern to most tax authorities around the world. The negative impact of tax non-compliance on the economy and the evolving nature of the Malaysian corporate tax system have motivated this study. The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of corporate tax non-compliance among small-and-medium-sized corporations (SMCs) in Malaysia.

This study used economic deterrence theory to analyze and test 375 tax-audited cases finalized by the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia in 2011.

Multiple regression results revealed that marginal tax rate, company size and types of industry exerted significant effects on corporate tax non-compliance. The services and construction industries were noted to be the predominant industries engaged in tax non-compliance. The amount of concealed income unearthed during tax audit indicates clearly that there is widespread tax non-compliance in Malaysia and the quantum of tax lost through tax non-compliance is quite high.

This study only sampled SMCs audited in 2011, hence, care has been exercised in generalizing the findings.

This study affirms that marginal tax rate, company size and types of industry are the main factors influencing compliance behavior of SMCs. The findings provide important insights not only to the Malaysian tax authority, but also to tax authorities and tax researchers in other parts of the world given that tax non-compliance of SMCs is a prevalent and universal problem. For example, with regard to the finding that marginal tax rate and company size are linked to non-compliance, it can be surmised that tax authorities ought to divert resources to firms with such characteristics when conducting audits.

Most tax research tax examining corporate tax non-compliance used financial data from annual reports to predict tax non-compliance, which are not very accurate. This study used actual tax audit cases obtained from the tax authority which are reflective of the actual situation. This study complements the scant existing literature by empirically evaluating the factors that influenced corporate tax non-compliance in a developing country like Malaysia.

This paper examines the corporate income tax compliance costs and their determinants by analyzing survey and financial statements data from firms operating in Greece. We find that corporate tax compliance costs are of considerable size and vary with several firm-specific characteristics, including the firm’s size, its age, the sector in which it operates, its location, and its legal form. The paper intends to raise awareness regarding the impact of tax compliance costs, especially for countries, such as Greece, that were significantly affected by the economic and financial crisis.

Tax compliance involves complying with the tax rules and regulation, which encompasses the filing, reporting and payment of tax. The two aspects of tax non-compliance are tax evasion and tax avoidance. While the ethicality of tax evasion as an illegal act of reducing tax is clear, the consensus regarding the morality of tax avoidance as a legal act of minimizing tax is mixed. This chapter will discuss the ethical perspective of tax (non)compliance.

We approach this topic by discussing the two important terms of tax non-compliance namely tax evasion and tax avoidance from the ethical point of view. The tax evasion and tax avoidance were critically evaluated to justify whether it is ethical or not. The tax non-compliance is also associated to the corporate governance which if do effectively help to protect the interest of larger stakeholder.

In a nutshell, tax non-compliance such as tax avoidance and tax evasion is unethical act and these acts of non-compliance go against the spirit of contemporary corporate governance which sought to protect the interest of the stakeholders.

Tax non-compliance could enhance shareholders wealth (in terms of reduced tax); it affects the distribution of wealth (public benefits financed by tax revenues) among the society at large as another stakeholder affected by such act. Future research may be conduct to investigate this to the larger sample.

Firms should avoid engaging in non-compliance activities such as engaging in tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance as part of its social obligation to the society in line with the spirit espoused in the contemporary corporate governance.

This paper argues that tax non-compliance is unethical and highlights the importance of having efficient corporate governance for larger stakeholder’s interest.

This paper aims to examine areas of tax difficulties encountered by corporate taxpayers in complying with tax obligations under the self-assessment system.

A two-phase exploratory mixed methods approach was employed. The first phase involves eight focus group interviews with 60 tax auditors from the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (IRBM) and the second phase adopts a mixed-mode survey among selected Malaysian corporate taxpayers. Thematic analysis and descriptive and inferential analysis were used to examine the qualitative and quantitative data in achieving the objective.

Three dimensions of tax complexity encountered by corporate taxpayers were tax computations, record keeping and tax ambiguity. The first two complexity dimensions were faced largely by smaller companies. On the other hand, the least difficult tax-related areas were dealing with tax agents, submitting tax returns within the given time and dealing with the tax authority.

In a tax policy context, this study enables international tax authorities in general, and Malaysian tax authority in particular, to have greater confidence in developing and administering tax laws and policies to maintain and/or increase the overall level of corporate tax compliance.

Unlike prior studies that mainly used individual taxpayers or students as research participants, this study employed corporate tax auditors from the tax authority and corporate tax officers. Tax auditors and corporate taxpayers provide invaluable insights into the possible determinants of compliance variables. These insights are based on their practical experience in handling corporate tax audits and managing corporate tax matters, respectively.

This is the first report on estimates of tax compliance costs of Malaysian companies. Compliance cost is an unavoidable cost of doing business and arises from activities associated with the reporting of income for tax purpose. The average compliance cost per company was estimated to be RM68,836, which is RM0.26 per RM 1,000 sales turnover. Sixty‐one percent of compliance cost was incurred in computation‐related activities and 39 percent in tax planning activities. Measured relative to revenue, the compliance cost is higher for smaller companies than for larger companies, which suggests that compliance cost is regressive, a finding similar to those reported in other countries.

The study aims to empirically analyze the effects of the presence of female top managers and owners on corporate tax compliance.

Data for analysis were sourced from the World Bank Enterprise Surveys that involved 23,178 private firms in 98 countries. The surveys used a stratified random sampling method by using three criteria, namely, firm size, business sector and geographic region, within each country. Further, data are analyzed using the ordinal logistic regression and supported by the marginal effect analysis.

The results show that the presence of female top managers and owners is a significant factor that underlies the firm-level tax compliance difference when firms exhibit relatively lower compliance.

Although this study shows that the determinants of corporate tax compliance are very complex, there are also crucial roles of top managers and owners' gender. This study advises firms to use the gender equality strategy to generate the best human capital, especially in their top management levels. Besides, this study can be helpful in designing policies that facilitate women to reach top managerial levels or to own businesses as an alternative method to enhance tax compliance for developing countries that fail to generate optimal corporate income tax revenues.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no previous studies examine the effects of the presence of female top managers and business owners on firms’ tax compliance policies. This study contributes to extend the understanding of the important role of women in corporate strategic decision-making, especially in taxation policies in various developing countries.

This study aims to analyze whether tax compliance is the basis for the short-run dynamics of the development of welfare and happiness. The strengthening of tax compliance of corporates and citizens is not only important to achieve the goals assumed by fiscal policy but also is part of the values that can generate a higher level of welfare and happiness in Europe.

This study uses a dynamic factor model to offer new indexes that allow to monitor tax compliance, public spending and happiness trajectories and to evaluate their short-run relationships. Next, an analysis of the cyclical characteristics in terms of duration, amplitude and intensity is provided using the Harding and Pagan method (2002).

The empirical findings show that the European countries were able to reinforce tax compliance during the expansionary periods of the economy, and this has made it possible to increase public spending, and indirectly, happiness. Otherwise, this paper shows that the contractions of public resources during the global crisis, such as the case in the COVID-19, reduced the possibilities of well-being in Europe and made it more difficult to increase public spending and happiness.

This study tries to analyze the transmission channels and relationships of three very complex variables: tax compliance, public spending and happiness. Incorporating these three variables into this research, with a short-run perspective, the authors have opened a new line of research that enriched the previous analysis. Therefore, the authors’ results should be considered the first step, that this study is going to continue to unravel the complexity of these relationships.

The design of policies aimed at improving individual, corporate and the well-being of nations needs them to incorporate elements of tax compliance as an objective that has economic and social implications. Individuals and corporates contribute to a fairer and more equitable society through compliance with tax obligations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper that offers evidence on the short-run dynamics of tax revenue, public spending and happiness for a better understanding of their relationships and behavior during the different periods of the economy.

This paper aims to present an integrative model in predicting corporate tax fraud.

This paper is grounded on three theories, namely, the theory of reasoned action, theory of planned behaviour and the “Fraud Diamond Theory”.

By integrating these three theories, this paper proposes that individual cognitive factors, fraud diamond factors and organizational factors such as normative and control factors influence managers to commit corporate tax fraud.

Practically, the proposed integrative model enables the government and tax authority to understand on why corporate managers engage in corporate tax fraud. It will also allow them to devise practical methods and strategies to prevent the corporate managers to engage in tax fraud.

This study has merit that proposed an integrative model in predicting corporate tax fraud. Research on corporate tax fraud has been the subject of limited investigation; hence, this study contributes to the tax compliance literature by proposing an integrative model to study corporate tax fraud in a Malaysian tax setting. Future studies can be conducted to test the proposed integrative model in examining the circumstances of managers’ intention to commit corporate tax fraud.