Personal income tax in Malaysia: compliance cost and compliance behaviour of taxpayers

The current study thus has been conducted from the perspective of public to understand the tax compliance behaviour of taxpayers, to make the public administration effective. By looking at the empirical evidence, it is clear that the countries whether they are developing or developed have to maintain good tax system, for revenue generation and smooth flow of economy. The cost of the tax compliance significantly affects the tax compliance behaviour, whether it is perceived time cost or monetary cost. The reason is the Malaysian taxpayers has a critical role to play, in ensuring the public funds of Malaysia to finance the ambitious development plans. The study hypothesises that perceived time cost and perceived money cost significantly influences the tax compliance behaviour of individual taxpayers in Malaysia. The study design was cor-relational and quantitative research strategy was utilized in which the mathematical, and statistical analysis of accumulated data about the research was done. The design was cor-relational research design which has aided in constructing a relationship among two related variables within the research. The sample was 100 citizens of Malaysia, both males and females, and from whom the data was collected using self-reported questionnaire. The SPSS was used for data analysis. The correlation confirmed the existence of significant positive relationship between the variables. For hypothesis testing, the Multiple Linear Regression was used to find the impact of predictor variables on the tax compliance behavior of individual taxpayers. The results showed that the time cost (perceived time spent) and monetary cost (perceived money spent) significantly influences the tax compliance behavior of individual taxpayers in Malaysia with significance value 0.007 and 0.001 respectively. Thus, both of the hypotheses are accepted