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The success of self-assessment tax system is voluntary compliance with the tax laws. When tax evasion is seen as unacceptable, taxpayers will tend to evade tax less. Hence, the understanding of taxpayers’ attitude on tax morality towards a tax system has to be enhanced to minimize tax evasion cases. The purposes of this study are to examine the relationship between tax fairness, tax knowledge, enforcement level and social exchange towards taxpayers’ attitude of tax morality under the self-assessment system in Malaysia and also to identify the relationship between taxpayers’ attitude of tax morality and taxpayers’ perceptions on tax evasion.

Data were collected from 400 taxpayers through a questionnaire and analysed.

From the analysis, it has been found out that tax knowledge is the most important tax system characteristic that affects taxpayers’ attitude of tax morality. In addition, taxpayers’ attitude of tax morality is significant to taxpayers’ perceptions on tax evasion in Malaysia.

The findings of this study would be useful for the government to further improve the present tax system to increase voluntary tax compliance.

This paper aims to investigate the moderating influence of religiosity on the effect of taxpaying attitudes on the tax compliance behaviour of entrepreneurial firms in Nigeria.

Using a cross-sectional survey design, we collected primary data from 368 owner managers of entrepreneurial firms in Southwest Nigeria using structured questionnaires. Respondents were purposefully selected based on the purposive sampling technique. The data collected with the structured questionnaires were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Two linear regression models were compared.

Estimations in Models 1 and 2 suggest that taxpayers’ attitudes and religiosity (intra- and interreligiosity) have significant effects on the tax compliance behaviour of firms, but the influence of intrareligiosity is insignificant. Estimations in Model 3 suggest that taxpaying attitudes without the moderating influence of religiosity exerted a significant effect on tax compliance behaviour by 13%, while taxpaying attitudes with the moderating influence of religiosity exerted 17%. Estimations in Model 4 suggest that taxpaying attitudes with the moderating influence of the interreligiosity dimension had a more significant contribution to the changes in tax compliance behaviour than the intrareligious dimension.

From the findings, the following policy implications can be deduced: (i) if taxpayers’ attitudes improved and religiosity was leveraged by the tax authorities, tax compliance behaviour of entrepreneurial firms would be induced in Nigeria; (ii) the consistent positive influence is a strong indication that religious values are critical elements of tax compliance interventions that should be considered by policymakers when designing public policies on tax evasion and avoidance in developing countries.

We bridge the gaps in the literature because our study affirmed that taxes are religiously driven. In addition, the study validates the applicability of theory of planned behaviour in investigating the moderating influence of religiosity on the causality between taxpaying attitude and tax compliance in the developing context.

This paper aims to explore the role of religiosity in determining taxpayers’ attitudes towards tax compliance and discusses likely explanations for the findings in the context of the literature.

A sequential exploratory mixed-methods research design was used in this study. Data were collected using a self-administered survey which involved approximately 300 individual taxpayers in Malaysia, followed by face-to-face interviews with 14 individual taxpayers. Majority of the respondents in both survey and interviews were salaried taxpayers, and the remaining were self-employed taxpayers.

Religiosity is found to have a minimal but statistically significant positive impact on voluntary tax compliance. This probably can be explained by the strong religious values held by many Malaysians, as well as the concept of giving which has been emphasised in almost all religions.

Because this study did not differentiate between religious values and moral values in measuring the source of respondents’ internal values, there was a possibility that their internal values may be derived from both sources. Hence, comparing the impact of individuals’ religious values with individuals’ moral values that have no influence from religion on tax compliance is suggested for future research.

A new mechanism is suggested to the Malaysian tax authority in regards to the treatment of religious payment to reduce the sense of inequality among citizens and taxpayers.

This study enriches the limited literature of tax compliance from the perspective of developing countries, particularly Malaysia, and adds to the limited literature internationally from a religiosity perspective.

This study aims to investigate the extent to which the theory of reasoned action (TRA) can be used to explain tax compliance among small business enterprises (SBEs) in Uganda and extends the application and relevance of the theory to a new area of tax compliance. It contributes the TRA, as a predictor of tax compliance in a developing country context.

A cross-sectional survey targeting different categories of SBEs was carried out using interviewer-administered questionnaires. A sample of 384 SBEs was used in the study.

The TRA contributes critical insights on the tax compliance behaviour of small businesses in developing economies. It influences tax compliance behaviour. The study illustrates evidence about the negative attitudes SBEs have on intentions to comply with tax regulations and the extent to which these attitudes influence their compliance behaviour. Subjective norms positively influence tax compliance intentions in a positive manner. Overall, the appearance of these intentions shows a negative effect on tax compliance behaviour. These findings also imply that Uganda Revenue Authority needs to understand the social psychology of taxpayers and tailor these in their policies and efforts to increase compliance.

The TRA has been used to explain behaviour in numerous situations in psychology. The study used this theory in a new geographical, economic and administrative environment; Uganda. This theory has proved relevant in explaining psychological, sociological and economic behaviour; specifically tax compliance. The TRA was revised to include a new construct of perceived behavioural control, which turned into the theory of planned behaviour. This could not be studied due to time and logistic constraints. Therefore, there is a need to investigate if this revised theory can explain tax compliance behaviour better.

The paper suggests that tax administration efforts and policies should consider the social-psychology aspects of the taxpayers to improve tax compliance.

This study adds a new arena of explaining tax compliance from a theory commonly used in psychology to a new setting in finance.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating effect of adoption of electronic tax system in the relationship between attitude towards electronic tax system and tax compliance using evidence from small business enterprises (SBEs) of an African developing economy.

This study used a quantitative research approach where questionnaires with close-ended questions were used. This study’s research design was cross-sectional and correlational. Usable questionnaires were received from 214 managers of SBEs, and data were analysed with the help of SPSS v22 and MedGraph program (Excel version).

Adoption of electronic tax system is a partial mediator in the association between attitude towards electronic tax system and tax compliance. Results further indicate that adoption of electronic tax system and attitude towards electronic tax system are significantly associated with tax compliance.

This study was cross-sectional, and monitoring changes in behaviour over time was not possible. The study used a quantitative research approach, and this limits respondents from expressing their feelings fully. The study was conducted in Uganda, and it is possible that the results of this study can be generalized to developing countries with environments similar to that of Uganda.

Whereas there has been a number of studies on tax compliance, this study provides an initial empirical evidence on the mediation effect of adoption of electronic tax system in the relationship between attitude towards electronic tax system and tax compliance using evidence from SBEs of an African developing economy – Uganda.

Positive attitudes towards factors such as the perceived fairness of the tax system are considered to play an important role in the level of tax compliance within a country (Strumpel, 1968). The tax literature indicates that not only knowledge but an understanding of the tax system may have an effect on taxpayers' perceptions of fairness and attitudes towards compliance. This study examines the linkages between an increase in tax knowledge on perceptions of fairness and tax compliance attitudes by using students enrolled in an introductory taxation course in a New Zealand tertiary institution. Contrary to prior research, the results indicated that an increase in tax knowledge did not have a significant impact on perceptions of fairness and tax compliance attitudes.

Tax evasion has been a major problem for governments around the world, with innovative and ever-changing schemes making the practice increasingly difficult to regulate. In light of this, this study aims to use the extended version of the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) (Beck and Ajzen, 1991) to predict individuals’ intentions to engage in tax evasion.

The research adopts a two-stage approach for data collection and analysis. First, the authors obtained survey data from 150 taxpayers in Barbados to conduct multivariate analyses to test the validity of the study’s hypotheses. The authors also used several open-ended questions on the survey instrument to conduct thematic analyses to further explore the influence of the antecedents of intentions to engage in tax evasion. Second, the authors conducted a focus group with two tax officials and three tax advisors.

The authors find that attitudes toward the behaviour, perceived behavioural control and moral obligation are significant predictors of intentions to engage in tax evasion. Factors cited as encouraging tax evasion are perceived fairness, tax authorities’ institutional infrastructure and responses, potential financial benefit, perceptions of inequality, low level of trust in tax authorities, perceived poor use of tax revenues and poor treatment of taxpayers. Conversely, factors cited as discouraging tax evasion include fear of prosecution, high morals and potential adequate governmental regulation.

The study measures intentions to engage in tax evasion rather than actual behaviour. The study does not measure social desirability bias.

This paper tests the applicability of variables used in the extended version of the TPB to predict intentions to engage in tax evasion in a Caribbean-based emerging economy. It also applies a mixed-methods approach of collecting data from taxpayers, tax advisors and tax officials.

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.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between tax arrears and socio-psychological demographic factors on individual taxpayers as well as macroeconomic factors in Malaysia.

In this study, using proprietary data from Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia on individual income tax returns for the year of 2004 through 2012, the authors run a panel data fixed effect model analysis to examine the impact of socio-psychological demographic factors such as age, gender, marital status, income level, occupational sector, place of residence of individual tax payers as well macroeconomic factors such as real GDP, inflation and economic growth on tax arrears in Malaysia.

We find that, by and large, older male taxpayers in big towns, with high incomes, tend to accumulate tax arrears. Tax arrears are also significantly affected by real GDP, but not by marital status or occupational sector.

To the best of our knowledge, this is one the few studies that uses individual tax returns data to study determinants of tax arrears.

This brief paper discusses the relevance of conducting surveys that measure individuals’ attitudes for understanding fiscal behaviour. While many surveys assess individuals’ attitudes towards paying taxes (e.g. by asking them to what extent they believe tax evasion is ever justified), it is less clear whether individuals’ responses to such survey questions are indicative of the way they would behave in reality. The paper presents a discussion of the way attitudes have been assessed in tax surveys and assesses existing evidence to support a link between these attitude measures and actual compliance behaviour. The paper suggests several avenues to improve the predictive value of attitude measures, such as increasing the specificity of measures, using evaluation scales or mitigating social desirability biases. A series of recommendations are made for measuring attitudes and interpreting attitude surveys for the use of researchers planning to conduct survey work, as well as for the use of findings from taxpayer surveys in the design of tax policy and administration.