The effects of tax morale on tax compliance in the mining industry

Abstract

Many tax authorities across the globe, including South Africa, continuously develop new methods to maximise tax collection and rely on taxpayers' voluntary tax compliance. Prior tax compliance studies confirm that taxpayers' tax morale is influenced by various economic, non-economic and social factors. However, limited research has been conducted on the effects of tax morale on tax compliance in the mining industry in South Africa. The objective of this study is to determine the factors that influence tax morale in the mining industry, and to determine the perceived effects of tax morale on tax compliance in the mining industry. The current study reports the results of a survey conducted amongst South African taxpayers in the mining industry. The survey contained a structured and open-ended questionnaire, which was sent to the participants via email. The findings show that the majority of the participants in this study are not happy with most of the public services they receive from government. They were of the opinion that corruption and waste in our government is high, and that a large proportion of collected tax is wasted on unnecessary expenses. Further to this, the majority of participants indicated that government does not share sufficient information on how it is spending collected revenue. However, a large proportion of participants believe that paying their fair share of taxes is the right thing to do, as it is required by law. These participants indicated that tax evasion is not acceptable and every taxpayer must pay their fair share of taxes when it is due and required. This study found that the complexity of tax law, fairness and equity, direct democracy, role and efficiency of tax officials, trust in government, as well as tax audit and tax compliance cost have an impact on taxpayers in the mining industry's tax morale. Tax audit is perceived to have both a positive and negative influence on these taxpayers' tax morale. However, various economic and noneconomic factors identified in existing literature as influential on taxpayers' tax compliance were not found to have an influence on taxpayers in the South African mining industry. This may be due to the fact that the majority of the participants indicated that they pay taxes due on behalf of the company to comply with the tax law and other regulations that govern the mining sector.