Statistical Analysis of Citizen’s Personal Income Tax Compliance in Lagos State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study focused on tax compliance in Lagos State, Nigeria among employees that are gainfully employed. A survey design was adopted for collecting data with a self - designed questionnaire administered among residents of Shomolu Local Government Area. The instrument was validated by experts and through a pilot study and the Cronbach’s Alpha reliability coefficient was 0.834. A two - stage sampling technique was used to select 344 respondents of which 318 were completed, returned and used. The data thus collected were analysed using descriptive statistics, Spearman’s correlation and Chi-square tests with the aid of Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The result showed that tax compliance was 74.9% and there is significant positive relationship between taxpayers’ tax compliance (TTC) and the revenue generation (RG) in Lagos (p < 0.05), tax morale (TM) (p < 0.05) and taxpayer’s confidence in legal system (TCL) (p < 0.05). However, a significant negative relationship exists between taxpayers’ tax compliance (TTC) and tax rate (TR) (p < 0.05). It is therefore concluded that a high tax morale and high taxpayers’ confidence in the legal systems will enhance their tax compliance which in turn will lead to higher revenue generation in Lagos. It was recommended that Government should boost the morale of tax payers through accountability and efficient utilisation of taxpayers’ fund in providing qualitative education, free and affordable healthcare and good roads; implement the available laws to enhance taxpayers’ confidence in the legal systems and reduce existing tax rates to enhance tax compliance among the citizenry.

Keywords: Tax Compliance, Tax Morale, Revenue, Taxpayers’ Confidence, Spearman’s correlation

DOI: 10.7176/JESD/10-22-14

Publication date: November 30^th 2019