Determinants of business tax compliance: A case study of Togo

The results of a survey conducted by the Office of Togolese Revenue (OTR) in 2019, which covered 413 formal firms, show that several factors are key determinants of businesses' willingness to pay taxes. These include appreciation of tax fraud, amendment of tax laws, tax knowledge, tax beneficiaries, bribes, severity of penalties, legitimacy of customs duties, appreciation of tax amount, tax burden, legitimacy of Value Added Tax (VAT) and geographical location (Maritime, Plateaux, Centrale, Kara and Savane) of the firms. Using a probit model, the results show that all these factors are key determinants of voluntary tax compliance, except for the tax laws amendment, tax amount appreciation and the tax burden. When isolating the Maritime region, the result remains unchanged except for the fact that the appreciation of tax fraud has no significant impact on voluntary compliance in that region. Finally, the determinants vary once businesses are differentiated by size (Small, Medium and Large) nationally or regionally.