IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/rwirep/861.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The impact of internet penetration on corporate income tax filing in South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Lediga, Collen

Abstract

Tax administrations around the world have introduced e-filing of tax returns due to its potential to improve tax return filing compliance. The introduction of this service for businesses in South Africa has not yielded the expected results. Drawing on tax administrative data on tax return filing and population census data, the study aims at determining whether internet access in the country, could have contributed to the less impact of the introduced administrative intervention. Accounting for specific characteristics of the areas in the country, and geoclassication (urban or rural area), we find that an increase in the fraction of household areas with internet access by 10 percentage points, raises the fraction of businesses that do submit a tax return by 1.86 percentage points. The results of the analysis highlights that the impact of the introduction of e-filing services for tax returns submission, is dependent on the internet coverage of the area.

Suggested Citation

  • Lediga, Collen, 2020. "The impact of internet penetration on corporate income tax filing in South Africa," Ruhr Economic Papers 861, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:rwirep:861
    DOI: 10.4419/86788998
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/222664/1/1726598527.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.4419/86788998?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gary S. Becker, 1974. "Crime and Punishment: An Economic Approach," NBER Chapters, in: Essays in the Economics of Crime and Punishment, pages 1-54, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Gordon, Roger & Li, Wei, 2009. "Tax structures in developing countries: Many puzzles and a possible explanation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(7-8), pages 855-866, August.
    3. James Alm & Erich Kirchler & Stephan Muehlbacher, 2012. "Combining Psychology and Economics in the Analysis of Compliance: From Enforcement to Cooperation," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 133-152, September.
    4. James Alm & Chandler McClellan, 2012. "Tax Morale and Tax Compliance from the Firm's Perspective," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(1), pages 1-17, February.
    5. Pickhardt, Michael & Prinz, Aloys, 2014. "Behavioral dynamics of tax evasion – A survey," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1-19.
    6. Allingham, Michael G. & Sandmo, Agnar, 1972. "Income tax evasion: a theoretical analysis," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(3-4), pages 323-338, November.
    7. AfDB AfDB, . "Annual Report 2012," Annual Report, African Development Bank, number 461.
    8. Jacqueline Coolidge & Fatih Yilmaz, 2014. "Does E-Filing Reduce Tax Compliance Costs in Developing Countries?," World Bank Publications - Reports 20428, The World Bank Group.
    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. Pickhardt, Michael & Prinz, Aloys, 2014. "Behavioral dynamics of tax evasion – A survey," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 1-19.
    2. Emmanuelle Deglaire & Peter Daly & Fabrice Lec, 2021. "Exposure to tax dilemmas deteriorate individuals' self-declared tax morale," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 363-397, December.
    3. Henrik Jacobsen Kleven & Claus Thustrup Kreiner & Emmanuel Saez, 2016. "Why Can Modern Governments Tax So Much? An Agency Model of Firms as Fiscal Intermediaries," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 83(330), pages 219-246, April.
    4. Carrillo, Paul & Emran, M. Shahe, 2018. "Loss Aversion, Transaction Costs, or Audit Trigger? Learning about Corporate Tax Compliance from a Policy Experiment with Withholding Regime," MPRA Paper 87445, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Kimberly A. Eddleston & Jay P. Mulki, 2021. "Differences in Family-Owned SMEs’ Ethical Behavior: A Mixed Gamble Perspective of Family Firm Tax Evasion," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 45(4), pages 767-791, July.
    6. Paul Carrillo & Dina Pomeranz & Monica Singhal, 2017. "Dodging the Taxman: Firm Misreporting and Limits to Tax Enforcement," American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, American Economic Association, vol. 9(2), pages 144-164, April.
    7. Christopher Hoy & Luke McKenzie & Mathias Sinning, 2024. "Improving Tax Compliance without Increasing Revenue: Evidence from Population-Wide Randomized Controlled Trials in Papua New Guinea," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 72(2), pages 691-723.
    8. Bernard Gauthier & Jonathan Goyette, 2016. "Fiscal policy and corruption," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 46(1), pages 57-79, January.
    9. Eduardo Zilberman, 2016. "Audits or Distortions: The Optimal Scheme to Enforce Self-Employment Income Taxes," Journal of Public Economic Theory, Association for Public Economic Theory, vol. 18(4), pages 511-544, August.
    10. Nathalie Etchart-vincent & Marisa Ratto & Emmanuelle Taugourdeau, 2024. "Why should I comply with taxes if others don't?: an experimental study testing informational effects," Working Papers hal-04635966, HAL.
    11. Christoph Kogler & Stephan Muehlbacher & Erich Kirchler, 2015. "Testing the “slippery slope framework” among self-employed taxpayers," Economics of Governance, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 125-142, May.
    12. Fabbri, Marco, 2015. "Shaping tax norms through lotteries," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 8-15.
    13. Gobena, Lemessa Bayissa & Van Dijke, Marius, 2016. "Power, justice, and trust: A moderated mediation analysis of tax compliance among Ethiopian business owners," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 24-37.
    14. James Alm, 2019. "What Motivates Tax Compliance?," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 353-388, April.
    15. Colin C. Williams & Slavko Bezeredi, 2018. "Evaluating Policy Approaches Towards Undeclared Work: Some Lessons from FYR of Macedonia," South-Eastern Europe Journal of Economics, Association of Economic Universities of South and Eastern Europe and the Black Sea Region, vol. 16(2), pages 171-187.
    16. Fjeldstad, Odd-Helge & Kagoma, Cecilia & Mdee, Ephraim & Sjursen, Ingrid Hoem & Somville, Vincent, 2020. "The customer is king: Evidence on VAT compliance in Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    17. Eberhartinger, Eva & Safaei, Reyhaneh & Sureth, Caren & Wu, Yuchen, 2021. "Are risk-based tax audit stretegies rewarded? An analysis of corporate tax avoidance," arqus Discussion Papers in Quantitative Tax Research 267, arqus - Arbeitskreis Quantitative Steuerlehre.
    18. Semjén, András, 2017. "Az adózói magatartás különféle magyarázatai [Various explanations for tax compliance]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(2), pages 140-184.
    19. Ahmad Farhan Alshira’h & Moh’d Alsqour & Abdalwali Lutfi & Adi Alsyouf & Malek Alshirah, 2020. "A Socio-Economic Model of Sales Tax Compliance," Economies, MDPI, vol. 8(4), pages 1-15, October.
    20. Joel Slemrod, 2007. "Cheating Ourselves: The Economics of Tax Evasion," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 21(1), pages 25-48, Winter.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    corporate taxation; e-filing; less developed countries; tax administration;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • H2 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue
    • H7 - Public Economics - - State and Local Government; Intergovernmental Relations

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:zbw:rwirep:861. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rwiesde.html .

    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.