EFFECTS OF TAX AWARENESS, KNOWLEDGE AND SOCIAL COSTS ON TAX COMPLIANCE OF SMEs OPERATORS IN JALINGO LGA

Abstract

There was perceived failures of taxpayers to report correctly the actual income, claim deductions and rebates and to remit the actual amount of tax payable to the tax authority on time in Taraba State generally and Jalingo Local Government Area in particular. This may be due to non-compliance of taxpayers as the results of tax evasion and multiple taxes. Non-compliance has been a great challenge in the informal sector of the Nigerian economy. In line with this background this investigated the effect of taxpayer’s characteristics on the tax compliance of SME’s operators in Jalingo local government of Taraba state. The sample size of one hundred and ninety (190) managers of SMEs operating in Jalingo LGA was drawn from the entire population of manager in the study area using simple purposive sampling technique.  The study employed survey research design and data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation while hypotheses formulated were tested using linear regression analysis with the aid of a statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 23. The findings revealed that tax awareness (TAW) and tax knowledge (TAK) have significant positive effects on the tax compliance of SME’s operators in Jalingo local government area of Taraba state; while tax social cost has an insignificant negative effect on tax compliance of small and medium scale (SMEs) operators in Jalingo LGA. Therefore, the study recommends among others that the tax authorities should try as much as possible to create more awareness to the taxpayers through seminars, workshops and conferences to the SME’s operators; tax authorities/collectors should simplify the process of tax collection by not collecting bribe from the tax payers, filing expenses, distance etc as these will make the tax payers feel reluctant to pay tax as at when due as well as multiple taxes should be checked by the tax authority in order to reduce the burden of tax on taxpayers in Jalingo LGA, Taraba State.