Effects of Tax Audit Attributes on Tax Payers’ Compliance in Oyo state

Abstract

Governments worldwide invest heavily in public spending to ensure their citizens have access to essential services and basic amenities. To achieve this, governments require huge funds to meet its obligations. Among the various sources that government generates revenue, tax is major, because it contributes much more than any other sources. This study considered the effects of tax audit attributes on taxpayers’ compliance in Oyo state, Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive research design with 287 questionnaires administered to the selected staff of the Oyo state board of internal revenue selected through the stratified and purposive sampling technique. The data were analyzed with the aid of statistical package for social sciences SPSS to generate both descriptive and inferential statistics. The result of regression analysis of ANOVA which showed F- Value (1.308) and (P=0.0000) suggests that at least one of the independent variables of fairness and impartiality, penalties, reasonable audit duration, have a highly significant effect on the dependent variable which is taxpayers’ compliance. The study concluded that the effectiveness of tax audits, professionalism and competence of tax auditors, penalties attached to noncompliance and duration of audit process all have a significant impact on taxpayers’ compliance. It is recommended that the government should establish and implement penalties in order to serve as deterrent to non-compliance and in turn increase taxpayers’ compliance.