Tax compliance behaviour of entrepreneurs in the digital economy:
A research synthesis
Abstract
The advancement of digital technologies created enterprises to scale up their business operation
across borders. Even though digitalization brings huge benefits to the economy in transacting via
cyberspace resulted artificially reduce the taxable income or shit their profit to the low tax
jurisdiction in which little or no economic activities are performed. A growing number of research
identified various factors that influence such behaviour. However, there is a lack of systemization
of the factors influencing compliance decisions. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to
summarize and review extant literature concerning the factors which influence compliance
decisions. A total number of 523 papers published on tax compliance during 2011 – 2020 have
been analysed using Systematic Literature Review (SLR). Existing literature provides a framework
for understanding the influence of economic, psychological, social and institutional factors. We
suggest an improvement of the existing literature by incorporating technology as another important
factor that impacts the compliance decision of citizens and businesses. The findings of this review
enable synthesis researchers to find the gaps and consider promising future directions for further
research.
Keywords: Compliance behaviour, technology adoption in taxation, citation analysis, thematic
analysis.
Introduction
In the literature, compliance behaviour has rapidly grown since the seminal article by Allingham
& Sandmo 30 years ago (Allingham & Sandmo, 1972). Since then, more research has been
conducted on tax compliance. The integration of theories from psychology and sociology
contributed to strengthening the theoretical background of the compliance literature (Andreaoni,
Erad & Feinstine, 1998; Alabede, Ariffin & Idris, 2011).
Since the late nineties, researchers have focused more on integrating behavioural factors such as
psychology and sociology to study compliance behaviour (Yaniv, 2009; Kirchler, 2014). Even
though economic factors are important in assessing compliance behaviour, they are not sufficient
themself to explain the degree of compliance (Scott & Grasmick, 1998 as cited in Trivedi, Shehata
& Lynn, 2003). With the publication of an increased number of studies in tax compliance
behaviour, new models and applications, mismatches have been immerged. However, the vast
majority of the research lacks systemization and categorization of influential factors. Hence, there
is a considerable need for the systemization of factors for further advancement of research in
taxation. In particular, this paper helps to identify the main themes in the literature and the existing
gaps and new areas in tax compliance research.
The purpose of this paper is to provide a clear picture of factors that influence in compliance
behaviour of taxpayers. Firstly, the authors review recent influential contributions in the field and
GSJ: Volume 10, Issue 2, February 2022
ISSN 2320-9186 1274
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