Factors Affecting Tax Compliance of Small and Medium Business Profit Taxpayers in Addis Ababa
No Thumbnail Available
Date
2016-01
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This research sought to obtain opinions about tax compliance behaviour of small and medium
business profit taxpayers in Addis Ababa. The study has employed a descriptive survey design. In
order to gather the required data, questionnaire and key informant interview have been used. A
sample size of 230 were used from a population of 147,795 small and medium business operators
in Addis Ababa. To ensure the representativeness of different business sectors of taxpayers,
stratified sampling technique was adopted. Data for this study was collected using self-
administered questionnaires to small and medium business profit taxpayers and interviews to tax
consultants and staffs of ERCA. Responses of survey data were analyzed using SPSS software (V.
20) and the findings were presented using tables and figures. The results showed that social
services positively influence tax compliance of taxpayers. With regard to cost of tax compliance,
the study result revealed that small and medium businesses incur different costs such as salary of
accountants, fees to tax consultants, cost of stationaries, etc. that contributed for their non-
compliance. Lack of knowledge of tax rules contributed to the inability to calculate taxable
income and tax liability is another form of non-compliance. The findings of this study further
revealed that perception of small and medium businesses about the services provided by the
different branches of ERCA contributed for their tax non-compliance decisions. The researcher
then recommended that ERCA should educate the taxpayers and disseminate information on tax
updates more frequently to create the necessary awareness on tax laws to improve tax
compliance. ERCA should simplify filling and tax collection procedures by opening new tax
offices, reducing frequency of tax filling procedures to save time and money of small and medium
business profit taxpayers. It should improve the facilities of offices (internet connections,
parking, etc.) and retain experienced staffs so as to provide quality & timely services to
taxpayers to improve the level of their tax compliance and to generate more revenues.
Key Words: Addis Ababa, ERCA, small and medium business profit taxpayers, tax compliance
Description
Keywords
Addis ababa, Erca, Small and medium business profit taxpayers, Tax compliance.