Tax evasion, political/public corruption and increased taxation: evidence from Zimbabwe Ophias Kurauone and Yusheng Kong School of Finance and Economics, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China Stephen Mago Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and Huaping Sun, Takuriramunashe Famba and Simbarashe Muzamhindo School of Finance and Economics, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China Abstract Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between tax evasion, political/public corruption and increased taxation in Zimbabwe’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Design/methodology/approach – The study as a descriptive survey used questionnaires and interviews as research instruments for collecting data. Findings – The findings revealed that most SMEs are no longer paying some form of taxes as expected since the Government of Zimbabwe through the Ministry of Finance and Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe introduced the 2% tax levy on all bank electronic transactions greater than US$10 from October 2018. Originality/value – The paper recommends that the government should create an independent anti- corruption committee with strong monitoring and regulatory mechanism so as to fight political/public corruption; hence, creating a paradigm of trust and confidence among different economic players. Lastly, the tax authorities should engage all the key economic players when crafting the country’s tax laws/rates so as to promote a sense of equity, equality and economic transparency among citizens. Keywords Tax evasion, Political and public corruption, High tax rates, Black market, Public finance, Survey Paper type Research paper 1. Introduction and background The Global Financial Integrity (2015) claims that Zimbabwe has lost US$12bn in the past three decades because of corrupt activities that include tax evasion and other illegal commercial activities. Empirical findings from the World Bank (2015) estimates that 54% of the companies across developing countries do not report all the taxable revenues to the relevant tax authorities while Artavinis et al. (2015) gave an estimation of around 36% of revenue losses across European countries. In Zimbabwe, corporate companies contribute an average of 12% of the total revenues collected by Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) annually. Sadly, because of greediness and rampant corruption by some individuals in the economic system, revenue collected by ZIMRA in some sectors of the economy such as This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71973054 and 71774071). JFC 28,1 300 Journal of Financial Crime Vol. 28 No. 1, 2021 pp. 300-319 © Emerald Publishing Limited 1359-0790 DOI 10.1108/JFC-07-2020-0133 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/1359-0790.htm