The Tax Awareness and Compliance Levels Among Small Business Owners: Basis for Tax Education Program

Tax awareness and compliance are measures that ensure small business owners fulfill their responsibility to the government and are paramount in sustaining a favorable business reputation. This study explored the tax awareness level of small business owners and how understanding tax regulation and education influences their tax compliance behavior thereby resulting into proposal of a strategic tax education program to further enhance tax awareness and compliance levels. The adoption of the explanatory sequential research method revealed that smallest business owners had a moderate level of awareness of the types of basic taxes appropriate for the operation of small business and a low level of understanding of the tax due schedules which yielded to the passive attitude of some on paying relevant business taxes. Most of them were familiar with the varied government tax education measures and initiatives which they learned from various channels such as through tax seminars, posts on social media, ads on television, and the use of print media. Informants believed that those actions created tax awareness but compliance with tax responsibilities was not evident. Most small business owners have been harnessing the aid of tax assistants to deal with their business tax responsibilities. These findings propelled the researcher to craft tax education programs comprising strategic initiatives such as optimizing the integration of digital platforms in the tax process and forming a network among small business owners.