Analyzing the effects of tax awareness and perceived tax fairness on taxpayer compliance: A descriptive research on white-collars

Taxes are one of the most significant concepts for the lives of states and individuals. Therefore, it would not be wrong to say that taxes are a bridge between the state and the individual. While states maintain their existence with the taxes which received, taxpayers fulfill their civic duties with the taxes which paid. When taxpayers pay their taxes in proper and in accordance with the law, states would finance their budgets as should, and in this case, tax compliance is at its maximum. Tax non-compliance has been one of the most important issues that all governments have been concerned about and needed to work on since their state formation. There are many factors that affect tax compliance, however the two most important are tax awareness and perceived tax fairness. In this context, the study aimed to investigate the effect of tax awareness and perceived tax fairness on tax compliance within the framework of demographic factors. A comprehensive survey was created with information collected from the existing literature and presented to participants on the online platform. The survey was answered by 200 white-collar employees over the age of 25 residing in Istanbul, Turkey. Then, factor analysis, reliability analysis, regression analysis and Anova tests were applied using the SPSS program to test the hypotheses. The study found an reverse relationship between tax awareness and tax fairness. If taxpayer has more tax awareness, he/she perceives the tax as more unfair. Secondly, there is no significant relationship between tax fairness and tax compliance. Taxpayer's perception of tax fairness does not affect tax compliance. Finally, it has been revealed that there is a positive relationship between tax awareness and tax compliance. The more aware the taxpayer is, the more tax compliance will increase as direct proportion. Also, Education significantly affects tax compliance. As the level of education increases, taxpayers behave more compliantly. Keywords: Tax Fairness, Tax Awareness, Tax Compliance, White-Collar Workers