Exploring Themes of a Voluntary and Enforced Tax Compliance Behavior: A Stakeholders Perspective Using Thematic Approach in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Abstract

Around the World, governments pay their public expenditures primarily through the finance generated from the tax revenues. However, for many developing countries like Pakistan, the state authorities still face difficulties in achieving tax compliance. Therefore, this research explores several themes related to nudge practices toward a sustainable tax system in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This research employed a qualitative method following an interpretive research approach. This paper used a thematic approach using the qualitative data to achieve the research objectives. The authors collected the qualitative data through semi-structured interviews conducted with four major stakeholders, i.e., tax consultants, tax administration officials, business and salaried individuals, and then analyzed using QSR NVivo 13. The authors identified two central themes during thematic analysis – deterrence and non-deterrence nudges. We divide deterrence nudges into coercive factors (power of authority, tax enforcement escalation) and economic factors (probability of detection, tax rate, and the perceived threat of punishment). While the non-deterrence nudges include social factors (perceived tax fairness, perceived leadership agility, taxpayer morale and taxpayer knowledge), psychological factors (perception of government spending, positive incentive inducement, perception of taxing wealthy people, naming shaming intervention, perceived moral suasion, perceived service orientation, perceived trustworthiness, tax simplicity and the taxpayer religiosity evaluation). This research also sheds light on several other important implications for the academics and tax administration authorities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa–Pakistan.