Impact of Electronic Tax Registers on VAT Compliance: A Study of Private Business Firms

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of use of Electronic Tax
Registers (ETRs ) on Value Added Tax (VAT) compliance among private
business firms in Kisumu city, Kenya. A sample of 233 private firms was
selected from a population of 590 private firms using stratified sampling
technique. The data was gathered by use of questionnaires and analysed by
use of correlation and descriptive statistics. Empirical results reveals that
effective and regular use of ETR has a significant impact on the Value Added
Tax (VAT) compliance (R=0.622, p<0.05), frequency of inspection of
businesses by tax authorities has a slight impact on VAT compliance
(R=0.15, p<0.05) while sales had insignificant negative relationship with
VAT compliance (R=-0.077, p>0.005). Based on the research findings the
study concludes that use of ETR has a significant impact on VAT compliance
in Kenya.

Keywords: Value added Tax, Electronic tax Registers, Private Business
Firms, compliance