AN EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS OF DETERMINANTS OF TAX EVASION: EVIDENCE FROM SOUTH ASIA.

Tax evasion is a much challenging issue in both developed and developing countries specifically in South Asia. This study examines the tax evasion problem which erodes revenue generation for the Tax authorities and Governments in South Asian context. The objective of this study is to explore major determinants which influence tax evasion in this region. This research provides a basic framework to understand the impact of socio-economic, behavioral, institutional and political factors towards the decision of evading taxes. The research has conducted an empirical investigation of four South Asian countries, Pakistan, Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka through OLS panel regression analysis and Fixed Effect (FE) approach using a dataset from 1988 to 2017 derived from World Economic Forum Annual Reports for the period 1988- 2017. The measures that may help tax agencies and the governments to discourage tax evasion have also been highlighted in the last part of this paper. it is observed that factors like age, corruption, high-income level, marginal tax rate, ease of doing business, and accountability are positively related to the tax evasion with varying magnitude whereas the variables for gender, services income, HDI, public trust in politician and rule of law are negatively associated with the dependent variable. self-assessment, agriculture income source and technological readiness show mixed results both insignificant and significant for the region. it is concluded that economic and institutional factors are more strong determinants of tax evasion in comparison with the demographic factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]