| dc.description.abstract | In an effort to widen the revenue base, the Zimbabwean government has of late realised
the important role being played by the informal sector.In an effort to maximize revenue
from the sector key tax policies and administrative practices have been enunciated and
implemented. However there has been little to show for all these efforts as tax revenue
from this sector has not been consistent and budgets cannot be guaranteed of income from
this sector. The reason behind this failure to realise the potential revenues from the sector
despite a raft of measures is the major thrust of this study. This study sought to
investigate the impact that the formulated policies and administrative systems have had
on the sustainable voluntary tax compliance by the informal sector in Zimbabwe and
specifically focusing on the manufacturing sector operating within Harare’s Siyaso area.
The researcher realised that the issue of sustainability within the informal sector has
continued to be left out by studies on this sector, and therefore sought to fill this gap. The
researcher targeted manufacturers of wood, metal and cement products among many
other. The researcher did a review of literature and identified taxation policies and
administrative factors as the independent variables, whilst sustainable voluntary
compliance made up the dependent variable. The study was quantitative in nature and
given the population of registered informal sector businesses, the researcher settled for a
sample size of 345 participants. Although the researcher was cognisant to the fact that
manufacturing within the informal sector takes various trades, the fact that these are
governed by the same taxation policies and administrative systems, the simple random
sampling procedure was adopted. Data was collected using the self-administered
questionnaires and consequently analysed, aided by the statistical software package SPSS.
The findings of the study revealed that although taxation associated costs and availability
or non-availability of tax education positively relate with sustainable voluntary
compliance, these factors do not significantly impact sustainable voluntary compliance
within the informal sector. However, the study found out that compromising the tax
principles of fairness, equity and certainty and disregarding the fiscal exchange principle
in tax administration significantly impact sustainable voluntary compliance within the
sector. By gaining an understanding of these underlying factors, the authorities, should
enunciate policies that results in a tax system that is robust, whilst ensuring that taxpayers
benefit and receive services from paying taxes. These measures will go a long way in
ensuring sustainable voluntary compliance behaviour within the sector | en_ZW |
