Why Namibia's Taxpayers Don't Trust the Tax System
A new study reveals that poor access to Namibian tax authorities is eroding citizen trust and compliance. Researchers found five critical gaps in how the state interacts with taxpayers—from communication channels to transparency—that reinforce each other, creating a vicious cycle that undermines revenue collection and governance across developing economies.
Originaltitel: Public Channels of Access and State–Citizen Encounters in the Namibian Tax System
<p>The ability to access the state as a taxpaying citizen is important for the purposes of buildingtrust and reciprocity, voicing grievances and disseminating knowledge, and strengthening taxcompliance and transparency. Based on original empirical data, this paper elaborates a theoret-ical argument of how state-citizen encounters in the case of taxation are conditioned by fiveinteracting factors. Drawing on interviews with tax officials and taxpayers in Windhoek, Na-mibia, this paper shows that these five factors are weakly present and negatively reinforce eachother, thereby providing insights into the Namibian tax system and everyday state-citizen taxencounters in developing countries.</p>