A comparative study of South African students' perceptions of taxation

Abstract

Perception is a process of obtaining information about the world. Perceptions influence a person’s behaviour and previous research has found that perceptions influence a person’s tax compliancy. The objective of this study was to analyse and compare the perceptions about taxation of second year university students studying a BCom Law degree, taking into account the effect of a tax module elected by some of the students. This was done by collecting data from students that elected a tax module as part of their curriculum and from students that did not elect a tax module as part of their curriculum. The data was then analysed to determine whether there was a difference in students’ perceptions which may have resulted from the additional tax knowledge that the one group was acquiring. A questionnaire was used to collect the data. From the analysis of the data it was found that the perceptions between the two groups of students were not significantly different. This can be attributed to the fact that students electing the tax module were only exposed to the tax module for a limited time. It is important to note that the nature of this study was exploratory and the purpose was not to generalise the results. AFRIKAANS : Persepsie is ‘n proses om informasie van die wêreld te verkry. Persepsies beïnvloed ‘n persoon se gedrag en vorige navorsing het gevind dat persepsies ‘n persoon se belastingnakoming beïnvloed. Die doel van die studie was om die persepsies van belasting van tweede jaar universiteit studente wat ‘n BCom Regte graad volg te ontleed en te vergelyk, met inagneming van die belastingmodule wat sommige studente gekies het. Die ondersoek was gedoen deur data van studente wat die belastingmodule as deel van hulle leergang gekies het, en van studente wat nie die belastingmodule as deel van hulle leergang gekies het nie, te versamel. Die data was dan ontleed om vastestel of die addisionele belastingkennis ‘n verskil in die studente se persepsies wat belasting geneem het, teenoor die ander groep wat nie belasting geneem het nie, gemaak het. ‘n Vraelys was gebruik om die data te versamel. Uit die ontleding van die data was vasgestel dat die persepsies tussen die twee groepe studente nie betekenisvol verskil nie. Dit kan toegeskryf word aan die feit dat studente wat die belastingmodule gekies het, slegs vir ‘n beperkte tyd aan die belastingmodule blootgestel was. Dit is belangrik om te vermeld dat die studie ondersoekend van aard is. Die doel was nie om die resultate te veralgemeen nie.