IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/arp/tjssrr/2018p943-953.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Exploring the Influence of Demographic Characteristics of Malaysian Citizens Towards Tax Evasion

Author

Listed:
  • Nur Quratun ‘Aini Haron*

    (Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia)

  • Rina Fadhilah Ismail

    (Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia)

  • Nurul Nadiah Ibrahim

    (Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia)

  • Siti Aisyah Kamaruzaman

    (Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia)

  • Siti Syaqilah Hambali

    (Faculty of Accountancy, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia)

Abstract

The higher number of tax evasion cases and increase in the statistics of unpaid tax in Malaysia shows that Malaysian citizens still rationalize that the act of tax evasion as tolerable and acceptable. This study examines the linkages between citizens’ of Malaysia attitudes toward tax evasion with their demographic profile. This survey was undertaken in Malaysia, involving a representative sample of 173 of citizens.The scope of this study is limited to the salary earning citizens and retirees only. The salary earning and retirees are chosen as they are the potential taxpayers that may pay tax in future and thus their opinions seem reliable. This study found that Malaysian citizens find it acceptable to evade tax on all sizes of income regardless whether it is “a small part†, “a large part†, or “all part†of their income. From the demographic profile factor, it was found that only age and nature of employment have a significant difference on the attitudes towards tax evasion. On the other hand, the respondents’ gender, level of income and level of education seem to bear no significant difference to their attitudes towards tax evasion. In relation to age, this study found out that older people of above 55 are more opposed to tax evasion compared to citizens in the range of age 25 to 34 and 45 to 54. Such findings are expected as older people tend to become more compliant as they respect the law and the government compared to young people (Ross and McGee, 2011). Secondly, from this study, it appears that retirees are more opposed to tax evasion and there have a two-way tied for the least opposed to tax evasion which is self-employed taxpayers and employers. Retirees might be the ones opposed the most to tax evasion due to their age. Older people tend to respect the authority and law, hence are more averse. Self-employed people might be the ones who are the least opposed to tax evasion that could be due to availability of opportunities to evade tax is larger compared to other groups. In this study, it is also found that employers are the one who are the least oppose to tax evasion. Perhaps, employers earning high income may think that the tax system would reap all their hard work. Besides, employers may perceive that there are too many red tapes that might be a hassle for the employers to comply, thus they tend to evade tax. This study has provided useful insights to facilitate tax authorities in imposing actions and strategies regarding tax evasion.

Suggested Citation

  • Nur Quratun ‘Aini Haron* & Rina Fadhilah Ismail & Nurul Nadiah Ibrahim & Siti Aisyah Kamaruzaman & Siti Syaqilah Hambali, 2018. "Exploring the Influence of Demographic Characteristics of Malaysian Citizens Towards Tax Evasion," The Journal of Social Sciences Research, Academic Research Publishing Group, pages 943-953:5.
  • Handle: RePEc:arp:tjssrr:2018:p:943-953
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.arpgweb.com/pdf-files/spi5.1-943-953.pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.arpgweb.com/journal/7/special_issue/12-2018/5/4
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ross Adriana M. & McGee Robert W., 2011. "Attitudes toward Tax Evasion: A Demographic Study of Malaysia," Asian Journal of Law and Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 2(3), pages 1-51, October.
    2. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    3. Robert W. McGee, 2008. "Opinions on Tax Evasion in Asia," Springer Books, in: Robert W. McGee (ed.), Taxation and Public Finance in Transition and Developing Economies, chapter 17, pages 309-320, Springer.
    4. Eriksen, Knut & Fallan, Lars, 1996. "Tax knowledge and attitudes towards taxation; A report on a quasi-experiment," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 387-402, June.
    5. Russo, Francesco Flaviano, 2013. "Tax morale and tax evasion reports," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 121(1), pages 110-114.
    6. Robert W. McGee (ed.), 2008. "Taxation and Public Finance in Transition and Developing Economies," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-0-387-25712-9, October.
    7. Benno Torgler & Friedrich Schneider, 2005. "Attitudes Towards Paying Taxes in Austria: An Empirical Analysis," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 32(2), pages 231-250, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. repec:arp:tjssrr:2019:p:76-86 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Rajat Deb & Sourav Chakraborty, 2017. "Tax Perception and Tax Evasion," IIM Kozhikode Society & Management Review, , vol. 6(2), pages 174-185, July.
    3. Ross Adriana M. & McGee Robert W., 2011. "Attitudes toward Tax Evasion: A Demographic Study of Malaysia," Asian Journal of Law and Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 2(3), pages 1-51, October.
    4. Paleka Hana & Karanović Goran & Štambuk Ana, 2023. "The Direct and Moderating Effect of Sociodemographic Variables on Tax Compliance Behaviour," South East European Journal of Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 18(2), pages 34-48, December.
    5. Diana Onu & Lynne Oats & Erich Kirchler & Andre Julian Hartmann, 2019. "Gaming the System: An Investigation of Small Business Owners’ Attitudes to Tax Avoidance, Tax Planning, and Tax Evasion," Games, MDPI, vol. 10(4), pages 1-17, November.
    6. Traikova, Diana, 2013. "Determinants of non-farm entrepreneurial intentions in a transitional context: Evidence from rural Bulgaria," Studies on the Agricultural and Food Sector in Transition Economies, Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Transition Economies (IAMO), volume 72, number 72, September.
    7. Oana-Ramona Lobont & Nicoleta Claudia Moldovan & Ioana Vladusel, 2013. "Education regarding taxation from the attitude and intuition to experiment," Review of Applied Socio-Economic Research, Pro Global Science Association, vol. 6(2), pages 172-179, December.
    8. Traikova, Diana & Mollers, Judith & Buchenrieder, Gertrud, 2012. "How Farmers Become Entrepreneurs - Prenatal Diagnostic of Rural Firms in Bulgaria," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126816, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    9. Hrvoje Simovic & Helena Blazic & Ana Stambuk, 2014. "Perspectives of tax reforms in Croatia: expert opinion survey," Financial Theory and Practice, Institute of Public Finance, vol. 38(4), pages 405-439.
    10. Mohd Amran Mahat & Lai Ming Ling, 2011. "Featuring Tax Education in Non-accounting Curriculum: Survey Evidence," EconStor Conference Papers 56066, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    11. Alexander, Phyllis & Balavac-Orlic, Merima, 2022. "Tax morale: Framing and fairness," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 46(1).
    12. Fany Inasius & Giri Darijanto & Engelwati Gani & Gatot Soepriyanto, 2020. "Tax Compliance After the Implementation of Tax Amnesty in Indonesia," SAGE Open, , vol. 10(4), pages 21582440209, October.
    13. Kirchler, Erich & Hoelzl, Erik & Wahl, Ingrid, 2008. "Enforced versus voluntary tax compliance: The "slippery slope" framework," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 210-225, April.
    14. Colin C Williams, 2021. "Tackling Undeclared Self-Employment in South-East Europe: from Deterrents to Preventative Policy Measures," Economic Alternatives, University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria, issue 2, pages 280-298, July.
    15. Maria Andersson & Ola Eriksson & Chris Von Borgstede, 2012. "The Effects of Environmental Management Systems on Source Separation in the Work and Home Settings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 4(6), pages 1-17, June.
    16. Chia-chen Wang & Chin-ta Chen & Shu-chen Yang & Cheng-kiang Farn, 2009. "Pirate or Buy? The Moderating Effect of Idolatry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 90(1), pages 81-93, November.
    17. Tran Huy Phuong & Thanh Trung Hieu, 2015. "Predictors of Entrepreneurial Intentions of Undergraduate Students in Vietnam: An Empirical Study," International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, Human Resource Management Academic Research Society, International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, vol. 5(8), pages 46-55, August.
    18. Mustapha Bachiri, 2016. "Determinants of Students’ Entrepreneurial Intentions: Evidence from Moroccan University," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(11), pages 83-89, November.
    19. Hyun Hye Kim & EunKyoung Han, 2020. "The Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior to Identify Determinants of Donation Intention: Towards the Comparative Examination of Positive and Negative Reputations of Nonprofit Organizations CE," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-19, November.
    20. Clara Cardone-Riportella & María José Casasola-Martinez & Isabel Feito-Ruiz, 2014. "Do Entrepreneurs Come From Venus Or Mars? Impact Of Postgraduate Studies: Gender And Family Business Background," Working Papers 14.04, Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Department of Financial Economics and Accounting (former Department of Business Administration), revised Sep 2014.
    21. Corinne Mulley & Liang Ma, 2018. "How the longer term success of a social marketing program is influenced by socio-demographics and the built environment," Transportation, Springer, vol. 45(2), pages 291-309, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:arp:tjssrr:2018:p:943-953. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Managing Editor (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://arpgweb.com/?ic=journal&journal=7&info=aims .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.