The Relationship between Tax Rate, Penalty Rate, Tax Fairness and Excise Duty Non-compliance.

The rise of indirect tax non-compliance by taxpayers became the main concern of most of the tax authorities around the globe. In Malaysia, non complaince such as smuggling and illegal trade activities by importers involving cigarettes, liquor and imported vehicles bound under Excise Act 1976 have caused revenue losses in monetary and nonmonetary aspects. Therefore, the objective of this study is to examine the relationship of tax rate, penalty rate and tax fairness of excise duty noncompliance. This study uses the Deterrence Theory as a basis theory to investigate the phenomenon of excise duty non complaince. A total of 500 excise duty offenders throughout Malaysia responded to the survey. The model was empirically tested by using Partial Least Squares (PLS) with disproportionate stratified random sampling technique. The results indicated that the perception of tax rate and penalty rate are positively related while tax fairness is negatively related to excise duty noncompliance among importers.