Antecedents of paperless income tax filing by young professionals in India: an exploratory study

Purpose The aim of this study is to investigate the likely antecedents of young Indian professionals' behavioral intention (BI) to use the income tax e‐filing service. Design/methodology/approach Prior to data collection, for which a self‐administered survey was conducted, lecture‐demonstrations were arranged to familiarize the potential respondents with the income tax e‐filing service. The psychometric data were analyzed for reliability and construct validity of the measures, and thereafter a regression analysis was carried out. Findings Regression results showed that antecedents of young Indian professionals' BI to use the income tax e‐filing service are: perceived ease‐of‐use, personal innovativeness in information technology, relative advantage (RA), performance of e‐filing service, and compatibility (COMP). Originality/value Past studies on income tax e‐filing are beset by problems of adopter bias, and failure to treat trust as a multi‐dimensional. In addition, these studies are skewed towards two theories, namely technology acceptance model, and theory of planned behavior. Although perceived characteristics of innovating has held considerable promise as an alternative framework, it has a chronic problem of confounding between RA and COMP. In investigating the antecedents of young Indian professionals' intention to use the income tax e‐filing, this study also tries to deal with these issues, which are important to the practice of e‐government adoption research.