Is Tax Education Good or Evil for Boosting Tax Compliance? Evidence from Hong Kong

Whereas some researchers suggest that education fosters tax compliance, others argue that tax knowledge inspires tax evasion. The present study explores whether ‘tax education’ improves tax compliance using data from Hong Kong, given its influential position in East Asia and the government's reliance on taxpayers' voluntary reporting. Taxpayers comply if they are ‘able and willing to’ positively ‘perceive tax system fairness’ and ‘morally’ believe that it is right to comply. Our research model consolidates and empirically tests these factors as underlying channels explaining how tax education improves tax compliance. Being the first study to investigate how tax compliance in Hong Kong is affected by tax education through these channels, our empirical evidence is useful for future researchers and policy‐makers in the region.