Document Type

Article

Publication Date

4-1-2016

Abstract

This paper examines what shapes taxpayers’ attitudes towards tax compliance – otherwise known as tax morale – in Pakistan, a country that has struggled with low tax effort over the past decade. We exploit novel survey data collected in 2014 during a survey of individual taxpayers for the Federal Board of Revenue of Pakistan, which allows us to offer the first study of determinants of tax morale in Pakistan. These determinants are estimated using a binary probit regression model. Our results are, generally, in line with the findings of the modern empirical literature of tax morale in other countries. Overall, groups with lower labor force participation rates have more positive attitudes towards tax compliance in Pakistan. Educated respondents have higher tax morale in comparison to the illiterate but only those with very low or very high attainment levels have higher tax morale with respect to bachelor’s degree holders. In addition, metropolitan areas which are the largest population centers, are industrialized and seats of government have significantly high tax morale. We show that females have significantly higher tax morale than males. However, their attitudes towards tax compliance drastically worsen with the passage of time to the extent that elderly males have higher tax morale than elderly females. Relevant from the perspective of the tax administration in Pakistan, these findings imply potentially substantial gains from increasing female labor force participation rates. More generally, addressing the current failures of tax administration and dealing with the horizontal inequity resulting from administrative weaknesses is likely to contribute materially to improving voluntary compliance.

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