An empirical study on tax literacy: The example of the Marmara Region

Tax literacy means that individuals have feelings and thoughts about the tax system, who have information about the taxes that affect them in the tax system they are in. At the same time, it is called all of the abilities of individuals to make a tax return when necessary, and to calculate taxes. When a literature review is conducted to better understand the concept of tax literacy, it is seen that the sub-dimensions of tax literacy, which are affective, cognitive and psychomotor, are examined together with the concept of financial literacy. As a result of this literature review, which constitutes the main idea of the research, in the survey conducted with 438 taxpayers in the Marmara Region, the level of tax literacy, affective, cognitive and psychomotor dimensions, which are sub-dimensions of tax literacy, were examined separately. At the same time, it was questioned which way there is a relationship between the level of financial literacy and the level of tax literacy. According to the results obtained, it was determined that taxpayers who had previous psychomotor experience in taxation were more tax literate than taxpayers in the affective and cognitive dimensions. According to the results of the correlation analysis, individuals with high tax literacy also have a high level of financial literacy. A significant relationship was found between the age of the taxpayers and the affective dimension. While the cognitive, affective and tax literacy scores of the married participants were found to be significantly higher than the scores of the single participants, it was observed that the tax literacy level changed as the income level changed. This shows that the level of tax literacy may be at different levels depending on the demographic differences. In general, it can be said that financial literacy level affects tax literacy level as much as demographic factors. The fact that individuals are individuals who can manage their financial situations ensures that their tax literacy level is high.