Impact of Publicity on Collection of Turnover Tax free essay sample

Zambia Revenue Authority introduced turnover tax in April 2004 to counter the decline in tax compliance levels among small traders and contractors. Revenue collection has been falling in the area of turnover tax amongst the tax registered small taxpayers. Currently, out of the Taxpayer population of 3822 on the Copperbelt, only 1422 are paying this Tax, partly or in full despite paying tax at a flat rate of 3% on their annual turnover. The rest are not paying. This represents 37. 59% compliance level in revenue collection. Therefore the problem we have at hand is to reverse this negative trend of non-compliance by Taxpayers in this category. This is because if 62. 841% are not paying taxes, then there is significant loss of revenue and consequently, the government’s capacity to provide social services to its citizens is also reduced. If the Government’s ability to provide social services is reduced, it means reducing poverty levels in the country will be at a slow pace. We will write a custom essay sample on Impact of Publicity on Collection of Turnover Tax or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Therefore it is important to investigate the effect that increasing expenditure on publicity can have on the collection of Turnover tax by Zambia Revenue Authority. 3. ResearchQuestions1. 1. Could the low collections of turnover tax be as a result of low expenditure by Zambia Revenue Authority on publicity? 2. Could the low collections of turnover tax be as a result of poor attitude towards this tax type by taxpayers in the small taxpayer population? 3. Could the poor collections of turnover tax be as a result of ignorance by taxpayers in the small taxpayer population? . Could the poor collections of turnover tax be as a result of the rate of tax which is currently at 3% of the Turnover? 4. Research Objective The Research objective is to determine whether Zambia Revenue Authority can effectively increase revenue collection through increased collection of Turnover Tax through increased publicity about its activities and the importance of paying Turnover tax by small traders. Increasin g publicity means informing the public through the print and electronic media, sketches and drama and articles in popular magazines. This means that Zambia Revenue Authority spending more money on Radio Programmes, television programmes, Adverts in the print media and drama by hiring specialised drama clubs and comedians. In summary, the major objective of this research is to increase tax collections from the small traders who only pay turnover tax at 3% through increased expenditure on publicity and taxpayer education. 5. Literature review When conducting this research, I will heavily rely on secondary data. I intend to study what other people have researched on this topic through surfing of various websites. I intend to visit the following websites; The Commonwealth Association of Tax Administrators (CATA) website, the Bank of Zambia Website, The Zambia Revenue authority internal and external websites, the Organisation for Economic Corporation and Development (OECD) website, The Ministry of Finance and National Planning website, the Inland Revenue Authority of Malaysia website, Kenya and Uganda Revenue Authority websites. 6. Methodology In carrying out this research I hope to collect data from Zambia revenue Authority internal and external websites. I also intend to collect statistics from the Research and planning division of Zambia Revenue Authority. I will actually consider a period of 10 years. I hope to collect the expenditure by Zambia revenue authority in the last 10years from 2001 to 2011. I also hope to collect the statistics on Turnover tax collections per year from the Research and Planning Division. Finally I would use linear regression analysis to arrive at some conclusion. I will have to test the hypothesis: Ho: that higher publicity expenditure leads to higher revenue collections in Turnover tax. Ha: that higher publicity expenditure does not lead to higher revenue collections of Turnover tax. Furthermore I would want to estimate the strength of the relationship between publicity expenditure and Turnover Tax collections. ie how much increase in turnover tax collections for each kwacha increase in publicity expenditure. I should be grateful to be advised if it is okay for me to carry out my research on the above topic. Yours faithfully, B Lukwesa MBA Finance.