Assessing the impact of property tax enforcement on compliance.

Abstract

The study investigated the assessment of property tax enforcement strategies on compliance a case study of kabale municipality central division kigongi A area. The main objectives were to identify the factors that lead to non-compliance in Kabale Municipality, analyse the property tax enforcement strategies used by Kabale municipality to collect property taxes and to compare enforcement strategies used in Kabale Municipality to those of Kampala city which is achieving a higher property tax compliance. The study is a descriptive study; a sample of one hundred twenty respondents (120) of which 100 are landlords from kabale municipality, central division, kigongi A area who own taxable properties, 10 are kabale tax officials from municipal council ad 10 are tax officials from Kampala capital city authority. These formed as the key participants for the study. A questionnaire titled: “Questionnaire” was used for data collection. Data collected were analysed using frequency counts, percentages and sums using Microsoft excel. The findings of the study revealed that “lack of sensitization that is before and after tax collection, people don’t have knowledge on the taxes collected, they don’t notify the public or tax payers in case of arrears’ in payments, the compliance cost is high and people don’t see the use and value of taxes paid since roads are not worked on and there is garbage all over the area yet the taxes paid to kabale municipal council should be used to construct roads and also do garbage collection, tax collectors are so aggressive when enforcing collecting these taxes is being done are factors that are leading to non-compliance in kabale municipality. Kabale Municipal council needs to improve local collection to finance public service delivery, but confrontational methods will likely do more harm than good. Finding innovative ways to improve collection that is consensual, and where people can see the benefits of the taxes they pay, should therefore be of strategic importance for Kabale Municipal Council seeking to improve yields from property taxes.