The impact of social norms on voluntary tax compliance in Malaysia

Abstract

Tax compliance has always been a major issue for governments worldwide. This emphasizes the need to understand the factors that contributing to individual taxpayer’s compliance decisions that go beyond the standard economics-of-crime approach to include the role of social norms. This study explores the impacts of social norms on taxpayers’ attitudes towards voluntary tax compliance. Findings show that personal norms and subjective norms give a significant impact on the willingness of taxpayers to comply with tax laws. The tax authority is suggested to understand taxpayers’ attitudes in developing appropriate strategy to ensure positive tax attitudes are instilled in Malaysia to easily increase voluntary tax compliance in Malaysia.