Determinants of tax morale: Cross-sectional evidence from Africa

Abstract

The article provides a comparative analysis of the determinants of tax morale in South Africa and Zimbabwe, as neighbouring countries. In this quantitative research, data were collected using questionnaires from the 2010–2014 and 2017–2020 World Values Survey. For Zimbabwe, Wave 6 and Wave 7 had a sample size of 1 500 and 1 200, respectively. The study concludes that governments must understand tax morale and its determinants to boost voluntary compliance. Despite their lower standards of living, Zimbabweans have higher tax morale than South Africans. The determinants of tax morale differ between economic situations and countries. Corruption, prevalent in both countries, influences tax morale. All the models show that demographic factors have little effect on tax morale. In the analysis of the determinants of tax morale, hunger was introduced as an important variable. Although this variable was insignificant for South Africa, the study showed that in Zimbabwe, there is a negative relationship between hunger and tax morale in both economic situations. Policy-makers should consider eradicating corruption and hunger to boost tax morale to improve tax compliance. Continued tax education and improvements to the perceptions of democracy should be included in the mix of tax compliance enhancement strategies.