The aim of this study is to explore the impact between religiosity and voluntary tax compliance and enforced tax compliance for self-employed taxpayers in Turkey, where Islam is the predominant religion. A questionnaire survey was administrated to 375 male and 28 female self-employed taxpayers. In this paper, two dimensions of religiosity, namely interpersonal and intrapersonal religiosity, were studied. Factor analysis and ordinary least squares regression methods were used for data analyses. The results of the study illustrate that general religiosity has a statistically positive impact on both voluntary and enforced tax compliance. When we consider the dimensions of religiosity, only intrapersonal religiosity appears to be a significant contributor only to voluntary tax compliance. Nevertheless, interpersonal religiosity has no significant statistical effect on both voluntary and enforced tax compliance. This is one of the pioneer studies of its kind, and investigates the relationship between religiosity and tax compliance from the perspective of developing countries, particularly, Turkey.

Purpose: – The aim of this study is to investigate Turkish taxpayers’ perception of the severity of tax evasion relative to other crimes and violations. Design/methodology/approach: – A questionnaire survey was administrated to 475 Turkish self-employed respondents. One sample t-test and one-way analysis of variance methods were used for data analysis. Findings: – The results of the study illustrate that tax evasion ranked 10th among the 21 offences surveyed. The results indicate that the average person views tax evasion as only somewhat serious. When compared to similar white-collar crimes, it ranked less severe than accounting fraud, while it was ranked higher than violation of minimum wage laws, welfare fraud and child labor laws. The results of this paper are important as they emphasize the fact that general public do not perceive tax evasion as a serious crime. This perception, allied to lack of enforcement efforts, has created an environment where certain individuals may not be afraid of cheating on their tax return. The study also endeavors to observe whether there is a correlation between the relative severity of a crime whether a victim is involved or not. Research limitations/implications: – The main limitation arises from the sampling process used. The sample was drawn from only one city of Zonguldak, Turkey. The second limitation is related to the possibility of a participant misunderstanding the questions and terminology used in the survey. The third limitation is that this study only measures perceptions of the seriousness of 21 selected offences; hence, it may not be representative of the actual crimes. Originality/value: – This is an important study in relation to Turkey. This is the pioneer study of its kind which investigates the relationship between tax evasion as a crime and other offences in Turkey. Another important aspect of this study is the fact that our results indicate a close correlation with similar studies carried out in the USA.

This study surveys the opinion of a wide segment of Turkish society on the ethics of tax evasion. The survey instrument includes 18 statements used to justify tax evasion in the past. The research also finds that some reasons to justify tax evasion proved more attractive to participants than others. In our survey, the strongest support for tax evasion was in cases where the government abused human rights, where the government was corrupt or wasted tax funds, or where the taxpayer did not benefit from the tax expenditures. Conversely, the weakest arguments were in cases where the taxpayer did benefit from the tax expenditures or where the tax funds were spent wisely. What separates this study from others on the ethics of tax evasion is that it addresses interpersonal and intrapersonal religiosity. Its finding confirms the existence of an important relationship between both interpersonal and intrapersonal religiosity and the view toward the ethics of tax evasion.

In this study, Davis’s (1989) The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is used as a theoretical framework to extend and complement extant tax officials by acceptance of technological components of Tax Office Automation System (VEDOP) in Turkey. Relying on the basic TAM model, we examine the extent to which perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PE), and attitudes (AT) toward VEDOP affect behavior intentions (BI). The data set of the study was obtained from the survey applied to 185 individual tax officials in the city of Zonguldak. Consistent with the hypotheses, the results in general provided that the core constructs of TAM namely PU, PE and AT are positively and significantly determine BI of automation system used by tax officials. As predicted, these three factors explained a large proportion of variance in Behavioral Intention to use the VEDOP system. Internet and VEDOP training experience have not found to effect significantly.

The digital economy produces its elements. The most important elements are the coins/assets produced in digital or virtual environments, which cannot be fully conceptualised. In terms of taxation, the most important issues are the definition of these assets, the determination of a term that everyone generally agrees on, and the classification of these assets. This study aims to find the current crypto asset definition, classification, and taxation situation. For this purpose, Turkey and various country implementations and OECD recommendations were examined. A unity of terminology has yet to be reached on this issue, and the term virtual currency was used for these assets in the report published by the OECD in October 2020. As a result of this study, it is found that there is no still unity of implementation in terms of the taxation of these virtual assets, which are still considered illegal in some countries.