| dc.description.abstract | The major purposes of this study were to document t
he taxpayers’ attitudes and tax compliance
behaviour in Kenya, the case of SMEs business incom
e earners in Kerugoya town, Kirinyaga district.
and also to identify taxpayers’ attitudes towards t
ax systems, to identify factors which influence
taxpayers’ attitudes and to establish relationship
between attitudes and tax compliance behaviour
among SMEs business income earners in Kerugoya town
, Kirinyaga district. This research was a
survey involving business income earners among smal
l and medium size enterprises in Kerugoya
town, in Kirinyaga district. Data was collected fro
m two hundred and sixty (260) small and medium
size enterprises taxpayers, analyzed using descript
ive statistics, and summarized and presented in the
form of proportions, tables and percentages. The fo
llowing conclusions were also arrived at: First,
most taxpayers view the Kenyan tax system as unfair
. This was because most respondents differed that
they are paying a fair share of tax; that their nei
ghbours, friends etc are reporting and paying tax
honestly; that tax laws are easy to understand i.e.
calculation of tax filing and paying dates. They
were also indifferent with the paying of tax fines
and penalties: the aggressive tax enforcement effor
ts
by KRA e.g. ensuring tax audits and prosecutions of
tax evaders take place. Secondly, most taxpayers
have complied with the possession of PINs; the taxp
ayers in the district have partially complied in
terms of keeping up to date records and books of ac
counts. This is because most of them keep Cash
receipts, Cashbook, Balance sheet, Invoices, and Pr
ofit and Loss accounts. But other records like the
trial balance; Journals and Ledgers are not up to d
ate. Thirdly, the taxpayer file tax returns on or
before 30th June, a sign that they actually comply
with the dead lines given by KRA, which they file
themselves instead of doing it using the Accountant
/ tax advisor. Fourthly, most taxpayers in the
district have never paid penalties. Fifthly, some o
f the factors for tax non-compliance were found to
be: the inability to understand tax laws , a feeli
ng that they are not paying a fair share of tax, po
sitive
peer attitude and Rewarding. Lastly, testing the hy
pothesis of the study that “Taxpayers’ attitudes do
not encourage tax compliance in Kenya”, it was foun
d that there is a very strong relationship between
the taxpayers’ attitudes and tax compliance in Keny
a i.e. taxpayers’ attitudes encourages tax
compliance in Kenya since the correlation of 0.846 ≅
1.
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