The impact of religiosity on tax compliance among Turkish self-employed taxpayers

The aim of this study is to explore the impact between religiosity and voluntary tax compliance and enforced tax compliance for self-employed taxpayers in Turkey, where Islam is the predominant religion. A questionnaire survey was administrated to 375 male and 28 female self-employed taxpayers. In this paper, two dimensions of religiosity, namely interpersonal and intrapersonal religiosity, were studied. Factor analysis and ordinary least squares regression methods were used for data analyses. The results of the study illustrate that general religiosity has a statistically positive impact on both voluntary and enforced tax compliance. When we consider the dimensions of religiosity, only intrapersonal religiosity appears to be a significant contributor only to voluntary tax compliance. Nevertheless, interpersonal religiosity has no significant statistical effect on both voluntary and enforced tax compliance. This is one of the pioneer studies of its kind, and investigates the relationship between religiosity and tax compliance from the perspective of developing countries, particularly, Turkey

A cross-cultural study of religiosity and tax compliance attitudes in Malaysia and Turkey

Ensuring compliance in tax collection is very crucial as tax is one of the basic elements of public financing in almost all countries. The issue of compliance in tax research has been explored over many years from different perspectives. Initially, it started with a negative assumption of taxpayers’ compliance attitudes and recently the research has shifted to a more positive attitude of taxpayers. One of the factors that is expected to shape taxpayers’ compliance attitudes is religiosity. Even though a number of studies have started to explore this issue recently, not many studies have used primary data because the majority of the studies were relying on secondary data. Therefore, this study is comparing the impact of religiosity and its components on both tax compliance components, voluntary and enforced tax compliance, in Malaysia and Turkey. Surveys distributed to individual taxpayers were used in both countries. Religiosity is found to have a significant impact on voluntary tax compliance that influences taxpayers’ positive attitudes in both countries. Even though religiosity seems to be an influential factor with respect to tax compliance behaviour, this study has shown that in certain circumstances, it might appear irrelevant

Developments of local governments'structure and tinance in Japan

Japonya üniter yapıyla birlikte yüksek derecede yerelleşmenin olduğu bir ülkedir. İki kademeli bir yerel yönetim sisteminin bulunduğu ülkede, yerel yönetimler önemli ölçüde harcama gerçekleştirmelerine karşın yeterli gelirlerle donatılmamışlardır. Bu nedenle de yerel yönetimler gelir kaynakları açısından merkezi yönetime bağımlı olmuşlar ve yüksek düzeyde borç stoku sorunu ile de karşı karşıya kalmışlardır. Ülkede, 2000 yılının sonlarında yerel yönetim maliyesi alanında yaşanan sorunları çözmek amacıyla idarelerarası ilişkiler konusunda önemli düzenlemeler yapılmıştır. Japonya’da reform süreci boyunca yaşanan tecrübeler, yerel yönetim sistemini reforme eden ülkemize idarelerarası ilişkilerin nasıl düzenlenmesi gerektiği konusunda önemli ölçüde ışık tutabilecek niteliktedir. Bu noktadan hareketle, bu çalışmada Japonya’da yerel yönetimlerin yapısı ve yerel yönetimlerin finansmanında yaşanan gelişmeler ele alınmıştır. Çalışmada öncelikle Japonya’nın yerel yönetim sistemi ve Japon yerel yönetimlerinin gelir ve harcamaları konusu incelenmiştir. Daha sonra, Japonya’da merkezi yönetim ve yerel yönetim arasındaki ilişkiler değerlendirilmiş ve çalışma sonuç kısmıyla tamamlanmıştırJapan is a unitary state with high degree of decentralisation. Although high expenditures are done by local governments, in which two-level local governing system is adopted, they have no adequate revenues. For this reason, local governments have been depended on the central government in terms of revenue resources and therefore they have faced with heavy debt stock problem. Towards the end of 2000, some important regulations have been done in the area of intergovernmental relations to solve public finance problems of local government. Experiences witnessed in Japan during the process of reform could shed light on how regulations of intergovernmental relations could be applied in our country which has been carrying out reforms in local government system. From this point of view, in this study, the structure of local governments and the development of finance at local governments in Japan are examined. Firstly,local government system in Japan and the subject of Japanese local governments’ revenues and expenditures are examined. Afterwards, second, the relations between local and central governments in Japan were evaluated and the study is completed by providing some concluding remarks

Operating costs of taxation: A conceptual evaluation

Vergileme faaliyeti mükellefler üzerinde oldukça ağır yükler meydana getirmektedir. Oluşan bu yükleri üç farklı grupta toplamak mümkündür. Vergileme sonucu oluşan ilk yük, bizzat uygulanan verginin kendisinden kaynaklanmaktadır. İkincisi, etkinlik maliyeti olarak adlandırılır ve vergileme faaliyetinin piyasada meydana getirdiği çarpıklıkları ifade eder. Sonuncusu ise, operasyonel maliyetler olarak ifade edilir ve vergi sisteminin uygulanmasından dolayı ortaya çıkan idari maliyetler ile uyum maliyetlerinden meydana gelir. Literatür incelendiğinde yukarıda ifade edilen ilk iki maliyet unsuru ile ilgili çok sayıda çalışmanın olduğu fakat vergi sisteminin meydana getirdiği operasyonel maliyetler ile ilgili çalışmaların oldukça sınırlı düzeyde kaldığı görülmektedir. Bu çalışma, vergileme faaliyeti sonucu meydana gelen operasyonel maliyetlerle ilgili olup, bu maliyet türünü kavramsal, teorik ve tarihi perspektiflerden incelemektedir.Taxation imposes a heavy burden on taxpayers. That burden consists of three elements. In the first place there are the taxes themselves. Secondly, there are the efficiency costs involving tax-induced market distortions. And finally there are the operating costs of the tax system: the costs to the government of administering and collecting the taxes, and the costs expended by taxpayers in complying with their tax obligations. The first two of these costs are well recognized in the economic literature, and have been the subject of extensive debate and research over the years. But, until relatively recent times, there has been far less written about the operating costs of taxation systems. This study focuses on the conceptual, theoretical and historical issues of operating costs of taxation

Revenue Administrations and Corruption: Motivations, Opportunities and Fighting Methods

Revenue administration is very important for a state’s economic development as it significantly affects its public expenditures capacity. But corruption in revenue administration can have a serious impact on fiscal sustainability by reducing the tax revenue of a government. Corruption in revenue administration also discourages honest taxpayers by making the black-market a more attractive alternative. Revenue administration is an attractive sector for corruption to take place as the opportunities and motivations to engage in illicit activity are numerous. The complexity of tax systems, the high discretionary powers of tax officials, the low cost of punishment, the pressure from tax evaders are only some factors creating environment for corruption in revenue administration. The aim of this study is to examine opportunities, motivations and fighting methods of corruption in revenue administrations.Revenue administration; Corruption; Taxation; Public financial management

Public Claims: A Legal Evaluation

In order for a claim to exist, the host there has to be two parties. In case of public claims one of the parties is the state, special provincial administration and municipalities; while the debtor consists of the natural and legal persons. The definition of public claims is provided by The Procedure Law of Collection of Public Claims. One claims, the quality of the public claims not cause any, may be excluded from the scope of Law No. 6183. All the claims of public administration are not public claims. However, any private claim can have the security of a public claim. For this reason the criteria used to define a public claim differ. Arrangements, which can render a public claim a privileged claim, exist in the relevant Code. The aim of this study is to define the concept of public claim expressed in the relevant code and to determine the conditions under which a claim not stated in the Code can be considered a public claim in the light of court decisions.Public claims; Public service; Damages for unlawful occupation; Private claims; Public administration

The ethics of tax evasion: a study of Turkish opinion

WOS: 00029186500000

Attitudes towards tax evasion in Turkey and Australia:A comparative study

The authors conducted a survey of 502 Turkish and Australian undergraduate and graduate business and economic students to determine their views regarding the ethics of tax evasion. These two groups were selected on the premise that their views represented the perceptions of two very different cultures, which has not been investigated in previous studies. The survey instrument required students to indicate their level of agreeableness to 18 general statements representing various scenarios in the socio-economic environment. The statements in the survey reflected the three main viewpoints regarding the ethics of tax evasion which have emerged from the literature to date. The results of the study show that although Turkish scores are significantly different from the Australian scores, both Turkish and Australian respondents believe that tax evasion can be ethically justifiable in certain situations, although some arguments are stronger than others

Should Governments Tax the Rich and Subsidize the Poor? A Comparative Study of Muslim and Christian Respondents

This study used the most recent World Values Survey (WVS) dataset to determine whether Christian and Muslim views on the acceptability of taxing the rich and subsidizing the poor was an essential feature of democracy. The sample size included more than 23,000 individuals from more than 50 countries. More than a dozen socioeconomic and attitudinal variables were also examined to determine whether significant differences existed. The study found that differences in viewpoint were often significant