ABSTRACT
This study sought to obtain the determinant of taxpayers’ attitude in the South-eastern
part of Nigeria. It was premised on the belief that the taxpayers’ level of education, level
of income, family pressure, and religious beliefs could be responsible for the various
attitudes they show towards tax payment which include: Complete tax evasion attitude,
Partial tax evasion attitude, and Compliance attitude.
The study covered 334 taxpayers from four work sectors; Civil service, Businessmen,
Company workers, and Academics in four states of the country’s southeast zone; Abia,
Anambra, Enugu and Imo state, in a research survey. Data were collected from them
using a Structured – Undisguised questionnaire sensitively designed to capture their
attitudinal constructs towards tax payment. The data collected were analysed using
Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation (γ) simply because the study would need to
obtain the degree of association (correlation) between some sensitive data and the three
general attitudes towards tax payment.
The study found that 296 of the respondents responded favourably in the survey
conducted on them. This produced a significant percentage response rate of 89.16%.
Also, the survey could be said to be approximately equally distributed among the
respondents’ gender as it covered 139(46.96%) females and 157(53.04%) males. On the
objectives set for this study, it was found that there is a significant positive relationship
between the respondents’ (Married and Widows) family pressure and attitudes (Complete
evasion, Partial evasion and Compliance) to tax given the Pearson’s correlation (γ) of
.776**, .740**, .492** respectively. In addition to this, the study found that, majority of
the those that said they have family pressure, their area of family pressure is finance, and
of course, the study’s objective two was achieved through the findings that substantiate
the significant correlation between the respondents’ level of income and the attitude they
all show towards tax payment, given the Pearson’s correlation (γ) of .844**, .874**,
.582**. Also, the study found that there is a significant relationship between the
respondents’ level of education and there tax compliance level (γ = .792**) as well as the
respondents’ religious belief and their tax compliance level (γ = .665**)
Found in the study, it was concluded that there would be a complete tax evasion attitude
from a taxpayer who has high family pressure resulting from his/her financial problem.
More so, any taxpayer who perceives that his/her take home income is small compared to
his/her family responsibilities can show unfavourable attitude towards tax payment. In
the same vein, the taxpayers’ religious beliefs have something crucial to do as far as their
attitude towards tax payment is. Those whose beliefs are strong will hardly evade tax
payment let alone the low believers who would not see how unjustified it is to evade tax.
Finally therefore, it should be remembered that the taxpayers’ level of education coupled
with how much aware they are about tax payment, can make them hardly evade tax
except for those who, despite the attended school but do not know what the tax are
actually collected for.
For generalization purpose, further similar studies can be carried out to cover other five
geo-political zones of the country as well as in other African countries so that the attitude
of taxpayers in the nation and in the continent of Africa can be well understood.
