Determinants of Tax Compliance Intention: Focus on the Theory of Planned Behavior

ABSTRACT

This study uses the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to investigate the tax compliance intention of citizens resident in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. TPB asserts that there are three components to behavior: attitude, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control. Based on the components, seven determinants are developed to study tax compliance intention: tax morale, tax fairness and trust in government and perceived power of authority, tax complexity, tax information, and tax awareness. To examine these determinants, the authors collected survey data from 402 respondents in Phnom Penh in August 2016. Exploratory factor analysis and the Cronbach’s alpha test were used to check the validity and reliability of the data set, and an ordered logistic regression model was conducted to test the hypotheses. The results confirm that tax morale, tax fairness, and tax complexity have a statistically significant influence on the tax compliance intention of the citizens, while the power of authority, trust in government, tax information, and tax awareness do not show a statistically significant relation to tax compliance intention.

KEYWORDS:

• Tax compliance intention
• theory of planned behavior
• Phnom Penh
• Cambodia
• tax morale
• tax fairness
• trust in government
• power of authority
• tax complexity
• tax information
• tax awareness

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. The pure economic deterrence theory is developed from the economics of crime model by Becker (1968).

2. The retirement age in Cambodia is 60 years old.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partly supported by Social Science Korea Program through the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and  the National Research Foundation of Korea [grant number NRF-2018S1A3A2075609].