Search results

This paper aims to develop a conceptual framework of tax knowledge that can be used to analyse and discuss tax knowledge as a factor influencing tax compliance.

Relevant literature was sourced using keywords pertaining to tax knowledge to identify the constructs of the framework. Thereafter, secondary interview data on small business owners’ tax challenges were thematically analysed to test the proposed framework.

Three elements of tax knowledge were identified, namely, general, procedural and legal tax knowledge. General tax knowledge relates to a need to have a fiscal awareness; procedural tax knowledge refers to understanding tax compliance procedures; and legal tax knowledge pertains to a need to understand regulations.

The proposed framework may assist future research in providing a structured approach for assessing tax knowledge as a factor influencing tax compliance. The framework may also assist tax authorities in designing targeted tax education outreach programmes for taxpayers and improve their understanding of taxpayer behaviour to influence the compliance behaviour of its taxpayer population.

An acceptable and specific measurement of tax knowledge as a factor of tax-compliance behaviour has been proposed and tested as a tool for analysing and discussing taxpayers’ knowledge variables.

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.

Prior research finds evidence that audit quality is positively associated with the joint purchase of tax nonaudit services (NAS) and concludes that jointly provided tax services result in audit-related knowledge spillovers that lead to improved audit quality. We extend this line of research. We examine the relation between auditor-provided tax services and restatements and determine whether this relation differs when the auditor is a small or large accounting firm. We also examine whether the Securities Exchange Commission’s restrictions on certain tax consulting practices (SEC, 2006) altered this relation. Specifically, we measure whether the probability of financial statement restatements varies with (1) variation in accounting firm size (measured as PCAOB annually inspected firms versus PCAOB triennially inspected firms), and (2) the joint provision of audit and tax services. We find a negative relation between auditor-provided tax services and restatements which is consistent with prior research. We also find that this relation is significantly more negative when the auditor is a small accounting firm. Finally, we find that the lower probability of a restatement associated with the joint provision of audit and tax services persists regardless of auditor size after the SEC-imposed restrictions on certain tax consulting services in 2006. Our study provides evidence that accounting firms, and particularly small accounting firms, benefit from knowledge spillovers when jointly providing audit and tax services and these benefits lead to improved audit quality. Prior research concludes that large auditors provide higher audit quality and that the provision of tax services improves audit quality. Our results provide evidence that audit quality improvements are greater for small auditors and their clients. This improvement narrows that audit quality gap between large and small auditors. We do not find evidence that the SEC’s restrictions on certain tax consulting services altered the relation between audit quality and tax services.

This paper uses two studies to examine taxpayers' knowledge of tax incentives for charitable giving and also explores the consequences of this knowledge on charitable giving decisions. The first study surveys 600 US taxpayers to establish a baseline understanding of how making a charitable contribution affects taxpayers. In the second study, we conduct an experiment with 201 US taxpayers in which we manipulate the knowledge of taxpayers by providing an educational intervention; we also measure, if, how much is donated in a hypothetical scenario under various tax deductibility conditions. The first study indicates fewer than half of participants understand the basic principles of how charitable donations affect tax liability. Our second study reveals that a short educational video is extremely effective at improving taxpayers' understanding and helping them accurately estimate the tax benefit associated with charitable giving. However, through moderated mediation analysis, we also show that participants who received this educational intervention and accurately estimated the tax benefits in turn decreased their charitable giving. We conclude that the majority of US taxpayers do not understand whether they benefit from certain deductions and may be overestimating the benefit they receive from charitable giving, resulting in giving more than they intend.

This study aims (i) to assess the quest for tax education among working adults that pursuing off‐campus non‐accounting program, (ii) to analyze the level of tax knowledge among the working adults, (iii) to elicit the relevant tax topics to be taught should tax education be integrated into non‐accounting curriculum in higher education. We surveyed 450 working adults pursuing off‐campus non‐accounting program in one Malaysian public university. 190 usable responses were received. The survey found 64 per cent of the respondents were keen to learn taxation, and only 23.7 per cent of the respondents possessed high level of tax knowledge. The topics that they desired to learn the most are basic tax principles, personal taxation, tax planning for individuals and taxation for small business and company. The findings suggest that as we moved into the era of self‐assessment tax system, it is imperative for the accounting academics and the education authorities to seriously consider introducing tax education in non‐accounting curriculum in higher education.

Previous studies on tax compliance have not internally failed to consider why individuals avoid tax payments. The purpose of this paper is to explore the compliance behaviour of Indonesian taxpayers from holistic human nature perspectives including their rational, social and spiritual values.

This paper adopts the tabayyun approach, an interpretive conceptualised methodology using Islamic knowledge to explore taxpayers' rational, social and spiritual realities.

Tax compliance is influenced by holistic factors: personal economic rational, social consensus and spiritual beliefs. Rational taxpayers distrust tax authority and see tax payments as an economic decision (i.e. costs and benefits) that reduces/increases wealth. So, they tend to avoid or reconfigure payments. Opposite to economic rationally is the societal pressure upon taxpayers to converge to being an acceptable citizen with legitimate businesses. Under this view, no mistrust against tax authority exists. As for the spiritual factor, tax payments are seen as religious duties like zakat that ought to be paid for achieving spiritual alleviation.

Due to the research approach, this study results may lack generalisation. Future research can expand broader understanding of religious belief in corporation with compliance behaviour.

In the tax policy context, this study recommends to take into consideration religious levy being included in the tax system. This study also argues substituting tax with zakat. In Indonesia, religious levy takes more essential roles in the spiritual domain rather than economical domain.

It is difficult to expect tax compliance to be an internal compliance because the source of the command is of an external origin. It is considered as a new concept of wealth distribution that comes from an internal attribute. For states that have religious population as Indonesia, religious values become communal bonds that more dominantly form self-identity at both physical and mental levels. Hence, it is very essential for the state to consider the inclusion of religious values or teachings to the regulation, if the state wants such regulation to be adhered significantly by people. The collection instrument whose bonds originated in religious moral/spiritual values can raise the awareness and compliance voluntarily because the command source is internal and autonomous.

This study fills the gaps in the taxation literature by incorporating a spiritual perspective, instead of rational and social domains.

Small business owners play an important role in the tax system. This paper seeks to establish a framework to highlight the particular tax situation of small business owners and the resulting implications, from a psychological perspective.

A framework identifying the key characteristics of small business owners' actual and perceived tax situation is established. Literature investigating these characteristics is reviewed in line with the proposed framework.

Three key aspects seem to distinguish small business owners' perceptions of their tax situation: small business owners are likely to perceive more opportunities not to comply than employed taxpayers; they are more likely to experience a lack of meaningful taxation knowledge; and they are more likely to face decision frames that render taxes as painful losses.

The suggested link between the subjective experience of the tax situation and compliance calls for a focus on strategies that aim to influence taxpayers' perceptions of their own evasion opportunities, their level of legislative and procedural knowledge, and their sense of ownership of tax money. Such a strategy is suggested to be particularly likely to be effective in the phase of nascent entrepreneurship and in a climate of mutual trust between taxpayers and tax authorities.

This paper comprehensively identifies and reviews the perceptual correlates of factors unique to small business owners' tax behaviour.

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 study investigates the influence of tax research self-efficacy on tax research performance for a group of novice tax accountants. Tax research self-efficacy is a judgment of one's ability to perform the specific tasks necessary to solve tax problems. Theory predicts that self-efficacy will be positively associated with task performance and people's ability to cope with task difficulty. We tested this notion using a computer-based experimental approach to determine if novices with different levels of tax research self-efficacy perform differently when conducting a series of tax research tasks under difficult conditions. Our results, after controlling for certain performance-influencing factors, indicate that tax research self-efficacy is a significant predictor of tax research performance for novice tax accountants. This finding provides evidence of the construct validity of the tax research self-efficacy scale developed by Schmidt and Karsten (2000) and adds to our understanding of the factors that influence tax research performance.

This paper presents the results of a survey designed to determine what tax topics are important in the educational background of a trainee accountant entering the training environment in South Africa. These topics were then compared to the 2008 tax syllabus prescribed by SAICA and taught at accredited universities in respect of the 2009 Qualifying Examination. The results indicated that the 2008 syllabus is largely meeting the expectations of respondents both in and outside public practice, although there are a number of topics that the syllabus setters and educators should reconsider when next reviewing and updating the 2008 syllabus and as part of the considerations for the new competency framework.