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The purpose of this paper is to recognise and provide an approach to estimate the value of an institution that produces a public good to the wealth of a nation. Specifically, the authors value utilitarian justice.

The paper employs the classical economic theories of crime and shadow pricing to estimate the total economic value and shadow prices or social productivity of police and higher court deterrence. These measures are estimated using the definitions provided by Dasgupta and by re-engineering key deterrence elasticity estimates gleaned from Australian econometric studies.

The empirical findings suggest a relatively high social value for police and higher court deterrence. Notwithstanding, addressing socio-economic disadvantage is likely to prevent more subsequent offences than directing more resources to the operation of the criminal justice system.

The key limitations involve the sensitivity of the estimates to error. Further work is required on all the estimates in the model and in particular the social costs of the serious offences. The next step is to estimate the opportunity cost of supplying police and court deterrence. The cost estimate can then be combined with the estimates of social benefits to estimate a benefit-cost ratio. The model in broad terms demonstrates a way forward to estimating the economic value of and the social productivity of the criminal justice system. The provision of retributive justice is also ignored in this contribution. This requires a separate analysis.

The social implications are that there appears a way to both justify and evaluate the criminal justice system and this methodology may be applied to the operation of other public services.

The originality of this paper lies in suggesting a method to solve the valuation problem for the jointly produced public goods of the higher courts and police.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of tax audit, tax rate and tax penalty on sales tax compliance and examine the moderating effect of patriotism on the associations between tax audit, tax rate and tax penalty with sales tax compliance among Jordanian manufacturing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

In this study, 660 questionnaires were distributed by using systematic random sampling to manufacturing SMEs in Jordan, after which a total of 385 useable questionnaires were deemed suitable for analysis. Partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) was used to validate the measurement model and structural model and the predictive relevance of the study’s model.

The findings showed that tax audit and tax penalty were positively associated with the level of sales tax compliance, whereas tax rate was insignificantly associated with sales tax compliance. They also demonstrated the moderating significant effect of patriotism on the relationship between tax penalty, tax audit and tax rate with sales tax compliance.

Tax authorities and policymakers in developing majority societies in developing countries and in other Arab countries, especially in Jordan may use the results to focus their interest on the formulation of policies founded on the outcomes of the study to strengthen eligible SMEs to comply to further boost their sales collections.

This study extends the deterrence theory in the context of sales tax compliance by proposing the moderating effect of patriotism in the deterrence theory on sales tax compliance among SMEs. Moreover, the suitability for the use of PLS-SEM as a statistical tool in investigating the extended deterrence theory with patriotism as a moderating variable as well as its implications for theory and practice was also discussed.

The oil and gas sector are among the nonrenewable energy sectors that contribute immensely to the economic development of more than 98 countries around the globe. Nigeria depends largely on revenue from oil and gas. Unfortunately, oil and gas companies mostly evade taxes. This study aims to investigate the effects of variables subsumed in the economic deterrence theory of Allingham and Sandmo (1972), which comprise (tax rate, penalty and detection probability) with one additional variable royalty rates (RR) on petroleum profit tax compliance (PPTC).

The study used a survey to collect data from 300 local and multi-national oil and gas companies in Nigeria. SPSS version 25 and partial least squares-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) version 3.8 were used to analyze the data.

The results reveal that there is a negatively significant relationship between tax rate and RR and PPTC. The findings also show a positive and significant relationship between penalty and detection probability and PPTC.

The implication of the current study is that the current tax rate and RR are determinants of PPTC in Nigeria. Policymakers, in collaboration with the tax authority, should revisit these variables to enhance the level of PPTC, which could lead to an overall improvement in the country’s tax revenue.

Government seeks to realize its economic objectives and eventually its social objectives as well through taxation. In a Muslim-majority economy, besides many types of taxation imposed, some government also legally enforced an alms tax (Zakat) via specific authority. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of enforcement in Zakat compliance and how it can enhance the effect of social motivations, namely perceived institutional credibility and social pressure, on zakat payers' compliance decisions.

This research is underpinned by economic deterrence theory and employed data collected through a cross-sectional approach. A total of 274 Yemeni entrepreneurs responded to the questionnaire and analysed using SmartPLS version 3.2.9.

The study finds that social pressure and institutional credibility are significantly related to entrepreneurs' compliance with Zakat. Importantly, enforcement-moderated interactions of social pressure and perceived credibility on Zakat payers' compliance are statistically significant.

Some signals emerged from the results which could be used by governments throughout the Muslim-majority state to mitigate Zakat evasion amongst entrepreneurs. Furthermore, the study can provide information to Zakat authorities and policymakers on how to restore public trustworthiness and increase Zakat collection from entrepreneurs as well as cautioning such authorities that social pressure may possess an unfavourable attitude towards Zakat laws, influencing Zakat payers to do this action itself.

This study provides a shred of unique evidence by suggesting a new approach to the Zakat literature and linking the deterrence-based enforcement and social motivation with practice, which contributes to strengthening compliance levels amongst entrepreneurs and ultimately enhancing Zakat funds.

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 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 paper aims to examine agrochemical traders’ tax morale in three Ghanaian regions.

Primary data were collected from 92 respondents using structured questionnaires. A multistage sampling technique was employed and used in selecting respondents.. Descriptive statistics, factor analysis and quantile regression analysis were used to analyse data obtained via the questionnaires.

The study found tax reporting knowledge, tax calculating knowledge and tax payment knowledge to be the keen factors influencing agrochemical traders’ tax knowledge. It was also revealed that age, religion and marriage positively influence the tax morale of traders. Inversely, gender, high level of education and monthly sales were found to affect tax morale negatively. Moreover, trust (respect, trustworthiness and expertise knowledge) negatively influenced tax morale. Authorities’ tax knowledge and power (sanction and lockdown) were revealed to impact tax morale positively. However, tax morale decreases amongst agrochemical traders with higher tax morale when sanction increases.

Unlike previous studies which focussed on tax morale amongst individuals and firms outside the agribusiness sector, this study examined the tax morale within the informal agrochemical trading sector, which has recently attracted colossal patronage due to the high usage of agrochemicals amongst farmers in Africa and Ghana. This study also assumed tax morale to be at different levels; hence the factors that affect the morale at different levels differ. Therefore, the study examined the factors influencing tax morale amongst agrochemical traders by segregating tax morale into quartiles. Relating to theory, the economic deterrence theory was used to ground the study, which is not usually used in most tax morale studies.

The issue of tax evasion through fraudulent financial reporting committed by companies is a major concern facing the tax authority in Malaysia. As such, the purpose of this study is to propose a cohesive model of predicting tax evasion from the perspective of fraudulent financial reporting amongst small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME) taxpayers.

The proposed model for this study is designed to explore the extent of the relationships between the independent variables: family ownership firms, company size, presence of tax professionals, company’s duration in business and frequency of tax audits and the moderating variable, i.e. tax audit officers’ level of competence; and the dependent variable, i.e. tax evasion from the perspective of fraudulent financial reporting. This study is grounded on four theories: agency theory, political cost theory, economic deterrence theory and competency theory. Data will be gathered from actual audit cases resolved by the Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia. Ordinary least square regression analysis is proposed for the investigation.

This study anticipates that family ownership firms, company size, presence of tax professionals, company’s duration in business and frequency of tax audits could be associated with tax evasion amongst SMEs in Malaysia. This study further proposes that highly competent tax audit officers could mitigate the relationship between frequency of tax audits and tax evasion practices amongst SMEs in Malaysia.

This study should be able to provide a cohesive model of predicting tax evasion from the perspective of fraudulent financial reporting amongst SMEs in Malaysia. Research on fraudulent financial reporting amongst SMEs is very limited, especially involving the level of competence of the tax audit officers; therefore, this study should contribute to the tax evasion literature by providing a comprehensive model of predicting tax evasion through fraudulent financial reporting using a Malaysian tax setting.

Even though the human component has been recognized to have a crucial role in information systems (IS) security, the human issues have not received much attention. Recently a few approaches aimed at minimizing human‐related faults in the area of IS security have been put forward. This paper analyses different approaches aimed at minimizing user‐related faults. The existing approaches will be analysed from the viewpoint of their theoretical background, the research approaches employed, the research objectives and the organizational role of IS security. As a result, a new taxonomy, a comparison and critical analyses of the strengths and weaknesses of state‐of‐the‐art approaches shall be presented. Moreover, several issues that future research should explore and practitioners should consider when applying the results of the existing research are suggested.

This paper aims to enhance the understanding of tax non-compliance behaviour of owner-managers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Yemen. Drawing on the behavioural perspective and not on the Sharia per se, this study investigated the perspectives of Muslims towards government’s right to impose tax, summarised in three categories: forbidden, permissible and permissible under certain conditions.

This study was conducted using a self-administered survey to collect the required data from a sample of 500 SMEs in Yemen. Non-compliance is measured in terms of a single hypothetical tax scenario covering four types of tax situations. Yet, Muslims’ perspective towards the government’s right to impose tax was measured using the three perspectives stated above.

As the major finding, Muslims’ perspective towards taxation has a significant influence on their likely tax compliance behaviour. Specifically, the taxpayers who believed that tax is totally permissible (i.e. the government has the right to impose tax) were more compliant than those who believed that tax is totally forbidden. Furthermore, taxpayers’ non-compliance decisions are statistically related to tax rate and penalties.

The findings could serve as a useful input for taxation policy and strategy in Yemen. It is recommended that government should stress the importance of paying tax as a citizen’s obligation and also emphasise the religious legality of taxation, as it is used for public purposes.

This study differs from the existing literature in that its empirical investigation scrutinises the effect of citizens’ perspectives towards taxation on their non-compliance behaviour within the Islamic religion itself, particularly, in a typical Muslim community such as Yemen. The study is pioneer in adopting the views of different scholars on the government’s right to collect taxes based on three religious views (forbidden, permissible and permissible under certain conditions), which were used for measurement.