Tax Compliance in Ghana: Evidence Self-employed from Bawku West District

A number of reasons have been recognised for tax obligation on citizenry. These same reasons hold
for the imposition of tax on the self-employed. One of the principal reasons for taxing the selfemployed
is to create the required amount of revenue for the government to implement
developmental projects to better the lives of the citizenry. Without the required revenue generation
through taxes, no government can accomplish anything important in terms of development such as
schools, hospitals, roads, housing, water, sanitation and electricity. This study examined the factors
influencing tax compliance, taxpayers understanding of the tax system and specific measures to
combating tax compliance in Ghana. The explanatory quantitative research approach and descriptive
statistics such as mean and standard deviation was adopted and used for the analysis. 379 selfemployed
were engaged for the study using a questionnaire as a data collection instrument. The
study results reveals that, (1) The level of tax compliance is more affected by taxpayers’ confidence in
the government; (2) One’s financial situation can influence (either positively or negatively) his/her tax
compliance; (3) Educating taxpayers on their social responsibilities make them comply with tax laws;
(4) The degree of trust between the taxpayer and the government affects tax compliance; whiles tax
audit on the contrary does not affect tax compliance among the self-employed in the Bawku West
District. The implication of this study is that, for taxpayers to increase their compliance to the tax
systems, the government and the public services should give them more reasons to do so, by
ensuring fairness and putting their taxes into good use by providing them with tangible project and
programmes so as to increase the welfare of taxpayers.