Assessment of the knowledge, attitude and practice of over the top tax and mobile money tax among school of statistics and planning students at Makerere university
Abstract
The main objective of the study was to assess the knowledge, attitude and practice of OTT
and MM taxes amongst SSP students at Makerere University. The study specifically analyzed
the students’ knowledge regarding these taxes, attitude towards the taxes and their practice in
regards to these taxes. To operationalise the objectives, the researcher employed cross
sectional survey design across participants.
The study utilized stratified random sampling where the target population was divided into
strata to pick up respondents because the target population was heterogeneous in nature in
which they were selected randomly from the three strata (Year of study) and each respondent
issued a questionnaire. The data collected was analyzed using both univariate and bivariate
analysis, Pearson chi-square statistic was also employed to test the stated hypothesis at 0.05%
level of significance.
The Pearson chi-square revealed a significant relationship between accessing social media
and paying OTT to access therefore this showed that online audiences reduced with
introduction of this tax which resulted into double taxation with its effect imposed more on
low income earners. The statistical evidence; p-value was less than critical (0.043<0.05) at
95% confidence level. The study further revealed that students abide by the mobile money
tax than over the top tax and this is partly due to the fact that the MM tax is certain and
convenient as compared to OTT tax. Students were found to avoid paying OTT tax by using
VPN, WIFI/Hotspots among others.
In conclusion, the study recommends that in order to make these taxes appealing, there
should be proper accountability for tax revenue collected, proper tax planning to reduce
income inequality and students should be encouraged in their class work studies that paying
taxes is their role as responsible citizens and tax avoidance is dangerous to the economy.
Further studies including the following; Effect of OTT tax on accessibility to social media
platforms, Effect of these taxes on the welfare of citizens and also Assessment of the KAP of
OTT and MM taxes generalized to the whole country.
Key words: Knowledge, Attitude, Practice, OTT tax and Mobile money tax