Author(s): Sanjay Nandal, Diksha Khera
Goods & Services tax (GST) is a consumption-based indirect tax that levies on value-added in goods or services. In India, GST is implemented as a new taxation reform on 1st July 2017 to transform previous indirect structure of multiple taxes and improve tax revenue generation and tax compliance. Therefore, since its implementation, needs and interests of assessing taxpayers’ GST compliance and GST knowledge have attracting attentions of researchers, academicians and policymakers. Our study has made an attempt to assess GST knowledge and GST compliance levels among Indian taxpayers and also examined influence of GST knowledge on GST compliance. We have focused on population of GST registered small enterprises of Haryana state in India and solicited responses from 658 sample units by using semi-structured questionnaire and purposive sampling. We used descriptive statistics and CB-SEM as analysis techniques. The results led to conclusion that levels of GST knowledge and GST compliance in small enterprises are low and GST knowledge is a strong positive predictor of GST compliance. The policy implication of study is government should strengthen GST knowledge of taxpayers in order to improve GST compliance. Lastly, our study has suggested ways for improving taxpayers’ GST knowledge.