scholarly journals Tax Literacy: A Canadian Perspective

2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (4) ◽  
pp. 987-1007
Author(s):  
Anthony Pham ◽  
Antoine Genest-Grégoire ◽  
Luc Godbout ◽  
Jean-Herman Guay

Tax systems are complex structures that can be difficult for individuals to navigate. Understanding the way taxes are calculated and liabilities are assessed matters a lot when personal saving for retirement and education, and much of the government's social policy apparatus, are closely integrated with the tax system. This study uses a survey to measure individuals' knowledge about basic elements of the personal income tax, their perception of their own tax knowledge, and their tax-filing behaviour. One would hope that tax-literate Canadians would have a high level of knowledge of the way taxes work, and a realistic appreciation of the limits of their knowledge, and thus that they could make informed decisions, for example, when filing their tax returns. The survey data show that Canadians have good knowledge of basic tax facts but struggle when asked more complex questions regarding the progressivity of the income tax. Results were generally consistent across provinces with the notable exception of respondents in Quebec, who had higher marks on the authors' tax quiz but lower self-assessed tax knowledge. The measurement instrument employed in the study will allow for a refinement of research exploring the drivers of tax compliance as well as political attitudes toward taxes and redistribution.

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 216-244
Author(s):  
Subagio Efendi

This study fills the gap in the tax authority’s Covid-19 financial aid verifications by examining, and nominating, Long-run ETR (Dyreng et al., 2008) as the better corporate tax avoidance measure in excluding tax evader firms from the broad stimulus programs. Analysing confidential tax returns of 4,752 largest firms (32,120 firm-years) in Indonesia over 2009 to 2017 periods, this study found 18.12 percent of total sample firms is able to retain its Long-run ETR below 10 percent, which indicates continual tax avoidance activities by these firms during observation periods. Moreover, applying univariate and multivariate Ordinary Least Squares and Panel Data estimations, this study reveals, relative to other tax avoidance measures, Lagged Cash ETR (Lisowsky, 2010; Lisowsky et al., 2013) present the most consistent reliability in predicting long-run income tax burdens. Thus, this study asserts, in the conditions of computing Long-run ETR is costly and impractical (i.e. because of data unavailability), tax authority and policymakers can directly analyse firms’ Lagged Cash ETR to gauge their long-run income tax burdens and tax compliance behaviours prior the economic downturn. 


2016 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 260-282 ◽  
Author(s):  
John E. Anderson

To improve use tax compliance, twenty-seven states have added a line to their income tax returns where taxpayers can report taxable sales. This article reports results of a behavioral study of a postcard “nudge” sent to income tax filers in one of those states, Nebraska, to encourage self-reporting of liability. The research question is whether the informational nudge was sufficient to alter self-reporting behavior. Data indicate that the nudge more than doubled the likelihood of use tax reporting and nearly doubled the amount of revenue collected, but the rate of use tax reporting remains extremely low. Probit models reveal that use tax reporting rises with income at a decreasing rate. Selection models are also estimated because of positive selection bias in the selection of the treatment group. Taken together, the results indicate that an informational nudge is not likely to be sufficient to substantially change use tax reporting behavior.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
SAN LIO ◽  
JOHN MIRICHII

Tax is the bottom line source of revenue for the world’s governments. Taxation is the only known realistic means of collecting resources to finance public expenditure. This study aims at unraveling efficient mechanisms to be employed in Kenya to enhance income tax compliance to boost tax revenue for the current and future governments. With the new governance structure of forty seven county governments in place following the promulgation of the new constitution 2010, this exercise is timely. The study will make use of both secondary and primary sources of data in eliciting the required information necessary for the research findings.  The sample size will be made up of twenty companies drawn from different sectors of the Kenyan economy operating within the Nairobi County.The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20is used in the data analysis and presentation of findings.  The overall finding is that a tax system should be simple, withstraightforward rules for lay citizens to understand and at the same time guarantee that the cost of tax collection and administration is not higher than the actual tax revenue raised.The research findings lead to a conclusion that multiple rates of income tax, varied dates of making tax returns and a bulky legal tax framework make income tax compliance unforeseeable in Kenya.


Author(s):  
Ezra Ndubula ◽  
Emmanuel Matiku

The efficient and effective tax education to SMEs in developing countries like Tanzania is critical to overcome the challenges of tax compliances. Despite the trend of tax reforms in Tanzania since 1998, the effects of tax education on Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are still poor and many SMEs still see taxation process and cost as constraints to SMEs’ successes (Adam, 2012; Masanja, 2019). The study employed deductive approach, exploratory and descriptive survey methodology. The respondents involved 96 SMEs owners of Morogoro Municipality and four (4) TRA Education Department employees. The data collection tools involved the use of purposeful distributed questionnaires and interviews. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze data. The scope was to produce the frequency tables (Kothari, 209; Mbalwowa, 2014). To determine if the provision of tax education has resulted in tax compliance among SMEs, the results shown that to large extent there were high level of incompliancy on: timeliness for tax payment, voluntary tax payment, use of EFDs, issuance of fiscal receipts and online filing of tax returns. Therefore, the main attributing factors of tax incompliancy have been associated with tax education. The study recommends: to evaluate the tax education programs on revenue collection, complements information technology to disseminate tax education, carry out relational or causal studies of tax education on tax compliances across different demographic characteristics in Tanzania. More importantly, to promote a shift from the tax being assessed by TRA to self-tax assessment among SMEs through tax education program.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (Number 2) ◽  
pp. 23-49
Author(s):  
Lutfi Hassen Al-Ttaffi ◽  
Hijattulah Abdul-Jabbar ◽  
Saeed Awadh Bin-Nashwan

Tax is the main source of government revenue. However, a number of countries worldwide are increasingly besieged by challenges regarding compliance levels with the rules of tax systems. Thus, this paper aims to enhance an understanding of tax non-compliance behaviour by investigating the effect of the income tax system structure on Yemeni taxpayers’ behaviour. The study focuses on income tax compliance behaviour of owner-managers of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), as the Yemeni economy relies heavily on this sector. The SME sector represents 99.6 percent of business in Yemen. Based on a quantitative approach using a self-administered survey instrument, a total of 330 valid questionnaires were collected and the feedback provided analyzed. The results demonstrate that SME taxpayers exhibited a high level of tax non-compliance. Furthermore, the multiple regression analysis shows that the tax rate had a positive and significant influence on tax non-compliance behaviour, but the tax penalties rate did not. These results can be especially relevant to policymakers and practitioners of tax systems structures, particularly in a developing country such as Yemen.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 88-108
Author(s):  
Setiadi Alim Lim ◽  
Lilik Indrawati

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises play an important role in national economic development in many countries around the world. Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises have a large contribution to GDP (Gross Domestic Product), the supply of employment and exports of a country. Although it has a large contribution to the national economy, the contribution of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises to the state income from the tax sector is very small. There is a tendency for voluntary tax compliance from micro, small and medium- sized enterprises to be very low. This research aims to study the level of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises of tax compliance in East Java, Indonesia. To measure the level of tax compliance, 3 indicators are used, namely the ownership of the Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN), compliance with paying Income Tax and compliance to fill out and report the Annual Income Tax Return. The results showed that the level of tax compliance in micro, small and medium enterprises in East Java, Indonesia was still very low. Micro, small and medium-sized who have a Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) is only 37.80%, those who pay Income Tax are only 21.95% and those who fill and report Annual Income Tax Returns of only 18,29%.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 133-136
Author(s):  
Selvi . ◽  
Indra Sumarna ◽  
Alief Ramdhan

The reduction of tax rates for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) is actually to provide convenience to business actors in exercising their tax rights and obligations. However, the preliminary survey conducted by researchers shows that there are still many business actors who do not carry out tax obligations because of their ignorance of taxation. Therefore, the development of tax compliance for MSME actors begins with providing workshops on filling out Income Tax Returns to 20 MSMEs in Depok City by the collaboration with the Department of Cooperatives, Small Medium Enterprises and Market of Depok. The method is carried out by giving lectures, demonstrations, income tax calculation exercises and filling of Income Tax Return. The results of the implementation show that as many as 18 MSMEs can calculate up to filling in Income Tax Return


2019 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Dinis ◽  
António Martins ◽  
Cidália Lopes

Abstract Portuguese corporate income tax has a special feature rarely seen in other countries. Autonomous taxes are levied on an extensive set of corporate expenses, irrespective of corporate profitability. Fiscal revenue from the autonomous taxation of expenses comprises about 12 % of corporate income tax receipts, which illustrates its relevance for the tax authorities and the corporate world. As autonomous tax rules are usually interpreted and applied to certain corporate expenses by chartered accountants (CAs) when computing income tax liabilities and filling in tax returns, the purpose of this paper is to present an empirical study of the perceptions of Portuguese CAs regarding key dimensions of autonomous taxation of expenses (ATE), as these influence corporate tax management. Using a sample of 665 CAs surveyed, and applying factor analysis, the paper concludes that tax complexity, tax compliance and tax planning are the main dimensions of ATE perceived by respondents. Besides the corporate income tax impact on fiscal management, new layers of complexity, planning opportunities and compliance costs are perceived to be added by ATE. Additionally, by applying cluster analysis, the paper finds that sociodemographic characteristics of CAs (e. g. age, gender, professional environment, level of expertise) generate clusters of CAs with different perceptions of the role and consequences of ATE in the management of corporate tax affairs.


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