An empirical assesment of tax awareness and compliance among medical doctors in Turkey

The primary aim of this thesis is to examine the tax awareness and compliance levels of medical doctors in Turkey from a multidimensional perspective. Tax compliance is a crucial issue for the sustainability of public revenues as well as for the fairness and efficiency of the tax system. The first part of the study reviews the theoretical foundations of tax compliance, including the tax morale approach, the Allingham-Sandmo model, the Fischer model, the behavioral approach, the slippery slope framework, and the fiscal psychology perspective. In the second part, a bibliometric analysis was conducted using data retrieved from the Web of Science database. The analysis examined the evolution of publications, highly cited studies, co-authorship networks, institutional and country collaborations, and keyword co-occurrences. The findings reveal that research on tax compliance has increasingly evolved into an interdisciplinary field shaped by concepts such as trust, ethics, and behavioral economics. In the third part, a survey was conducted among 523 medical doctors working in Turkey to assess their tax awareness and compliance levels. Statistical analyses were performed considering demographic variables, employment sector (public/private), income level, and type of tax liability. The results show that compliance is more strongly influenced by structural factors than by demographic characteristics. Public sector doctors demonstrate higher levels of voluntary compliance, while private sector doctors are more prone to tax evasion. Furthermore, ethical perceptions and awareness of the role of taxes in financing public services significantly shape compliance behavior. In conclusion, this study contributes to the limited body of research focusing on professional groups by presenting empirical evidence from the medical profession. The findings indicate that strengthening voluntary compliance requires not only deterrence and enforcement mechanisms but also fairness, transparency, and trust-building policies, particularly for private sector practitioners.