TAX AUDIT AND TAX COMPLIANCE IN EDO STATE

ABSTRACT

The study evaluates tax audit and tax compliance in Edo State. It made use of questionnaire to carry out survey from individual and cooperate taxpayers and through the means of observation. The study used the purposeful and random sampling technique for data collection from taxpayers. Purposive sampling was employed to select only Edo State taxpayers for data collection while individual and cooperate taxpayers were randomly selected within the state. The sample size was determined by selecting of 25 individual taxpayers, 15 cooperate taxpayers and 10 tax authorities personnel’s as samples. The study used the sample linear regression result which showed that Tax audit has been one of the tools used by tax authorities in improving tax compliance in Edo State with a rising percentage of 39% in Tax compliance. It shows that one of the in which tax authorities can create awareness and also improve tax compliance is tax sensitization, which improves tax compliance by 33% according to the data collated for this study which also improve tax in Edo state. This shows the negative effect of taxpayer behavior to tax in Edo state but reveals that with proper induction of already stated ways of improving the significant of tax compliance in Edo state. The study further recommended that government should employ more tax competent professionals to conduct tax audit appropriately, tax audit should be done regularly to avoid evasion of tax and deter taxpayers from any means of fraudulent activities and regular tax sensitization awareness programs in other to keep taxpayer’s informed about the pros and cons of paying taxes.