Abstract
Worldwide, electronic filing (e-filing) system and its’ adoption has attracted much attention, however, scholarly study on accounting professionals’ acceptance of e-filing system is scant. Approach: This study aimed (i) to examine factors that motivated professional accountants to use e-filing (ii) to solicit their usage experience and (iii) to assess the barriers to adoption and other compliance considerations. The questionnaire survey was administered on 700 professionals from tax practice and commercial sectors who attended “Budget 2008” Tax Seminars, organized by the Malaysian Institute of Accountants in Peninsular Malaysia. In total, 456 usable responses from accounting and tax professionals were collected and analyzed. Results: The survey found out of 456 respondents, just 23.7% had used e-filing in 2007 to file personal tax return forms. Majority of the e-filers opted to use e-filing for the sake of convenience (55.8%), in faith to get faster tax refund (16.8%) and speed of filing (15.9%). For those who did not use e-filing, the key impediments were concerned over the security and did not trust of e-filing system. Some (4.8%) were unable to access to the e-filing website. Overall, just 26.1% of the professionals surveyed had confidence in the IRBM in managing the e-filing system successfully. Majority (41.2%) thought that ‘speedy tax refund’ to be the most desirable incentive to motivate individuals to use e-filing. Conclusion: As the IRBM is counting on professional accountants to promote the usage of e-filing system, this study provided important insights to the IRBM to developing marketing and business strategies to motivate professional accountant in business to use e-filing in order to accelerate the diffusion of e-filing system in a developing country like Malaysia.
Highlights
Since the 1990s, in order to achieve greater tax administrative and compliance efficiency, several tax authorities had progressively harnessed the power of Internet technologies by embracing an electronic tax filing (e-filing) system (ACCA, 2002; ETAAC, 2002)
E-filing is not mandatory rather it is offered as an option to taxpayers and their tax representatives, as a result, worldwide, several studies found tax users’ resistance to use e-filing system remains a widespread problem (ACCA, 2002; ETAAC, 2007; Hansford et al, 2006; Hung et al, 2006; Tan et al, 2005)
In the US, it was found that American tax professionals vary widely in their attitudes, technology readiness, acceptance and utilization of e-filing technologies (ETAAC, 2002)
Summary
Since the 1990s, in order to achieve greater tax administrative and compliance efficiency, several tax authorities had progressively harnessed the power of Internet technologies by embracing an electronic tax filing (e-filing) system (ACCA, 2002; ETAAC, 2002). E-filing is not mandatory rather it is offered as an option to taxpayers and their tax representatives, as a result, worldwide, several studies found tax users’ resistance to use e-filing system remains a widespread problem (ACCA, 2002; ETAAC, 2007; Hansford et al, 2006; Hung et al, 2006; Tan et al, 2005). The e-filing system may offer potential benefits to improve administrative compliance efficiency, the benefits gained may be obstructed by tax users’ unwillingness to accept and use the new tax technology. In developed countries like Australia, Canada, the UK, US and New Zealand, several studies have been conducted to examine tax practitioners’ acceptance of e-filing (ACCA, 2002; ETAAC, 2002; Hansford et al, 2006; Russell Marketing Research, 2003). The lack of perceived benefits, cost of compliance, lack of willingness to learn and perceived insecurities and misconceptions of the e filing service have impeded the tax professionals in the US from expending the resources to get involved
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