Faktor-Faktor Kelewatan Tempoh Penyelesaian Kes Siasatan Cukai di Malaysia: Persepsi Ejen Cukai

The enforcement of tax investigation is to collect the actual tax from tax evasion’s activities through proof of documents and facing the case in court. Tax Investigation Framework recommends that a tax investigation case to be settled in 18 months if using the account method or 24 months if using the capital method. Nevertheless, previous studies showed that most tax investigation cases took longer than the suggested time to settle and caused delay in collecting the actual tax. Therefore, this study targeted to get perspective of the tax agents on factors which are considered as influencing the tax investigation’s settlement period. This study chose to survey 364 tax agents who had experience in tax investigation. This study found that the enforcement strategy had been the most influential factor, followed by the competency of investigation officers, the investigation techniques being used, the tax penalties being charged, and the least influential had been the understanding of the tax laws. This study was the first in Malaysia that used the tax agents as respondent. Findings of this study could provide certain inputs to the tax authority on the recommended strategies to reduce the delay in the settlement period of tax investigation, and thus improve the actual tax collection.