The Effect of Tax Reforms on Tax Agents’ Job Burnout in Malaysia

Abstract

Goods and Services Tax (GST) is part of the Government's tax reform programmed to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of the taxation system. Tax agents play a vital role in enhancing GST compliance since they act as the intermediary between businesses and the government. Therefore, it is vital for tax agents to conduct their functions effectively in order to ensure the smooth implementation of GST. In doing so, tax agents may face certain difficulties which may cause high degree of job burnout among them. The main research objective of the study is to examine the relationship between the areas of difficulties faced by tax agents during GST implementation and tax agents’ job burnout. There are four areas of difficulties identified which are difficulties regarding GST knowledge, GST tax treatments, GST administration, and GST compliance costs. Result from the Pearson’s Product-Moment Correlation Analysis identified negative association between the independent variables and the dependent variable. This shows tax agents facing difficulties will tend to experience job burnout frequently. Then, based on the results of Multiple Regression Analysis, only hypothesis H1 and H2 are supported in this study i.e. difficulties regarding GST knowledge and GST tax treatments faced by tax agents will significantly affect the level of tax agents’ job burnout. Tax agents always the front liner to businesses in providing GST support, such as advice the business on procedures and the significance of the new tax system. Hence, in spite of GST complexity, tax agents need to understand the system and its tax treatments thoroughly. As a consequence, it lead to the increment of job burnout among tax agents.