An empirical study on taxpayers' rights in the context of voluntary tax compliance

With the development of economy, taxes have become an important tool in human life in terms of income for the state. The payments of the taxes that are collected by Tax Offices in a willing or unwilling manner have brought the issue of Taxpayers' Rights into the front line. While the Taxpayers' Rights being at a desired level increases the voluntary adaptation to taxation; if these rights are not at a desired level, this decreases the voluntary adaptation to taxation. Taxpayers' Rights were first brought into agenda with Magna Carta in Britain. Then, some other countries like the USA, Australia and Canada also included Taxpayers' Rights and the protection of these rights in their legal systems. Today, this topic has become even more important for taxpayers with the new and changing understanding of the Tax Offices. The understanding of "doing business in spite of taxpayers" in Tax Offices has evolved into "doing business together with the taxpayers", and this has increased the importance of Taxpayers' Rights. These rights are considered as necessary to increase the voluntary adaptation to taxes; because in countries where Taxpayers' Rights have missing points or are inadequate, the voluntary adaptation is at lower levels. These issues are especially emphasized in OECD Countries. This thesis aims to examine the concepts of Right, Taxpayers' Rights, and voluntary adaptation to taxes; and to explain the Taxpayers' Rights in Turkey and in OECD Countries. It is also the aim of the study to determine the missing points in Taxpayers' Rights in Turkey; and finally, to recommend solution offers to eliminate these missing points. The most important aim of the thesis is analyzing the viewpoints of income taxpayers, who are active in the cities of Erzurum, Kars, Iğdır, Van and Ağrı, which are located in Eastern Anatolia region, and which do not have a desired adaptation level to the taxation in Turkey, on the Taxpayers' Rights and on voluntary adaptation to taxation. Key Words: Taxpayer Rights, Taxpayer Bill of Rights, and OECD Countries.