Impact of electronic tax return filing system to voluntary tax compliance: a case Study of Ilala Tax Region

TRA has adopted modernized tax administration system (e-filing system) that integrates the process of filing tax returns so as to disseminate the service to the taxpayers’ hereafter rising tax compliance level. However the system is still unreliable especially on due dates of filing tax returns. Therefore the study was aimed to examine the impact of e-filing system to voluntary tax compliance, a case study of Ilala Tax Region, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The study gathered on available literature review and primary data from the field by means of questionnaire. A targeted population was VAT traders who are filing their monthly tax returns using e-filing system, about 120 taxpayers were selected to represent a total population 7,063 taxpayer by simple random sampling, but 103 taxpayers responded to the designed questionnaire. The data collected was analyzed by SPSS version 20.0. Both descriptive statistics and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The correlation analysis indicates that there were significant positive correlation between the tested independent variables (education, perception and technical skills toward e-filing system) and dependent variables (voluntary tax compliance). From regression analysis, revealed there was strong positive relationship between independents variables and dependent variable by 98.6%, therefore education towards e-filing, usefulness and easy perception towards e-filing has impacts to voluntary tax compliance. Therefore it can be concluded that e-filing system has influenced voluntary tax compliance and it’s recommended to the Authority that the use of technology to administer taxes may enhance voluntary tax compliance and hence government revenue collection. Further study should be on the use of technology system to administer tax and way of improving voluntary tax compliance.