Determinants of income tax compliance among micro and small enterprises in kenya: a survey of Ngara market in Nairobi
Loading...
Date
2019
Authors
Zau, Florence Manga
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
KESRA/JKUAT - Unpublished research project
Abstract
Taxes are an involuntary charge levied by the government on individual income, business profits and on transactions of goods and services. The purpose of the study was to analyze determinants of income tax compliance on MSEs. The main issue faced by tax authorities is that it has never been easy to persuade all taxpayers to comply with the regulations of the tax systems. Micro and Small enterprises are the majority of businesses in Kenya yet taxes collected from this sector are considerably low. In Kenya, the biggest block of taxpayers on the business sector are the Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) who according to IMF are 80 percent of taxpayers but remit only 5-10 percent of revenue. Their compliance rate is poor as most of the businesses are not registered and hence not paying taxes. This study aimed at assessing the tax compliance by MSE’s in the Ngara market of Nairobi Region. The study used a descriptive research design and owing to the large population a sample size of 150 traders was drawn from the target population of around 1500 traders. To ensure that various diverse categories of taxpayers and business entities were included in the survey, stratified sampling technique was adopted. Data was collected using structured questionnaires with both closed and open ended questions and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The study determined that tax rate had a negative but statistically insignificant effect on the income tax compliance among MSEs in Ngara market of Nairobi Kenya. The study also established that knowledge of tax, interest and penalties, technology have a positive and statistically significant effect on income tax compliance among MSEs in Ngara market of Nairobi Kenya.
Description
Keywords
Tax Audits, Tax compliance, Tax Evasion