Effect of Electronic Fiscal Devices on VAT Collection in Tanzania: A Case of Tanzania Revenue Authority

Abstract

The study sought to assess the effect of implementing Electronic Fiscal Devices in VAT collection in Tanzania. The study analysed the importance of Electronic Fiscal Devices to TRA, taxpayers and other stakeholders with the aim of determining the impact of Compliance Checks using Electronic Fiscal Devices on VAT collection in Tanzania, to establish the effect of Roll Out of Electronic Fiscal Devices on VAT collection in Tanzania and to evaluate the effectiveness of Enforcement of Electronic Fiscal Devices on VAT collection in Tanzania. The study utilized secondary data obtained from 391 traders registered at TRA and utilizing Electronic Fiscal Devices. The study adopted a descriptive research design. Preliminary data analysis was conducted as a pre requisite to running regression analysis. The data collected was computed using STATA SE 12.1 and the output presented in form of tables.  To answer the research objectives and hypotheses regression analysis was utilized where variables of the study were only able to explain 62.18% of the change in VAT collection and a 37.82% of the change being explained by other factors. The regression coefficients were negative for Compliance (-2.045778), positive for Roll out (2.040379) and positive for Enforcement (19.11515). Our variables of interest, that is, Roll out was statistically significant with a p-value of 0.038 while Compliance and Enforcement are statistically insignificant with the p-values of 0.055 and 0.188 respectively which are greater than a significant level of 0.05. The study found out that there is statistically significant relationship between Roll out and VAT collection. However, enforcement of EFDs and compliance check were found not to be significant related with VAT collection at 5% level of significance. The study recommends further longitudinal studies on the effects of roll outs, compliance checks, and implementation of Electronic Fiscal Devices on VAT collection in Tanzania.

Key Words: Electronic Tax Register, Electronic Fiscal devices, Expert Software, VAT Collection, Tax Compliance.