Abstract
The importance of tax compliance in a society is widely accepted. When individuals view the authorities as corrupt and wasteful of taxpayers’ money however, this could result in a lack of trust in the authorities, potentially reducing the level of tax compliance. Following the principles of the Slippery Slope Framework, this study used an experiment performed on third year Diploma in Accountancy students. The aim was to determine whether the South African tax authorities could use an understanding of the rationale supporting the sugar-sweetened beverage tax to demonstrate it acting in society’s best interests, and in doing so, potentially rebuild the level of trust in the tax authorities.
A mixed methods approach was adopted, with the data validation variant of the convergent design used to guide and provide structure to the research process. This approach embraced the collection of both quantitative and qualitative data using questionnaires. A pre-test post-test experimental design was used to conduct the experiment. The quantitative data was analysed statistically, using descriptive and inferential statistics such as factor analysis, mean inter-item correlation analysis and t-tests to provide trends and relationships identified. The qualitative data was analysed thematically, and used for triangulation purposes.
The overall result has shown that an understanding of the rationale supporting the SSB tax could potentially influence an individual’s level of trust in the tax authorities. The potential therefore exists for similar interventions to be used by the South African tax authorities to improve the levels of trust that South African citizens have in it, and in doing so, potentially improve the levels of tax compliance in South Africa.
Keywords: Tax compliance; Trust in authorities; Sugar-sweetened beverage tax; South African Revenue Service; Slippery Slope Framework; experimental design