A Dissertation Submitted to School of Business Administration in Partial
Fulfilment of the Requirement of the Degree of Master of Business
Administration – Corporate Management (MBA - CM) of Mzumbe University,
Morogoro
The study was conducted on the factors influencing tax compliance in Small and
Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Dodoma Municipality, Tanzania. To meet this
objective, the study employed three specific objectives. These objectives were, (i) to
examine tax collection performance in Dodoma Municipality in the last three years
(2014/15 – 2016/17); (ii) to determine economic factors influencing tax compliance
in SMEs in Dodoma Municipality; and (iii) to assess non-economic factors
influencing tax compliance in SMEs in Dodoma Municipality.
The study employed a survey design. The questionnaire, interviews and Focus Group
Discussions were used to collect data. Data analysis was undertaken by SPSS. The
study found that the tax collection performance in Dodoma Municipality in years
2014/15 – 2016/17 was positive and increasing.
The study found that the economic factors that influenced tax compliance attitude
among taxpayers included the following; (i) tax rates; (ii) tax benefits; (iii) tax audit;
(iv) penalties; and (v) fines. The non-economic factors that were found by the study
to influence tax compliance included the following. (i) Perceptions of the taxpayers;
(ii) Norms; and (iii) Perceived fairness. It was concluded that in recent years
TRA had established good strategies to collect tax making the improvement in tax
collection performance in Tanzania. Both economic and non-economic factors
influence tax compliance among the SMEs. It was recommended that TRA and other
stakeholders should sustainably improve their strategies to increase and improve tax
collection performance.