Abstract

This study aims to obtain the social representation of Indonesian society about taxes, especially those originating from the suburban and rural areas. Our previous study reported results that more people are representing those who live in urban areas and have higher digital literacy skills. Therefore, this study was conducted to broaden society's representative. Data was retrieved by direct social interaction to the people who are in public areas like traditional markets, rural areas, terminals, train stations, and small and medium enterprises around the campus area. A total of 121 respondents participated in this study. The analysis reveals the finding of 27 categories in terms of the social representation of tax. Among these categories, the highest frequency of occurrence is in the obligation categorization. Later, followed by categories of public interest, burdens, necessary, and corruption. In general, most respondents associate taxes with obligations. They acknowledge the importance of tax in an ideal, normative, and constitutional way. Under those circumstances, it heads them to comply with the tax rules. This reinforces the reasons why they tend to be more tax- compliant. However, tax is also associated with financial and non-financial burdens. The widespread practice of corruption or misuse of tax money further diminishes people's trust towards the government. This becomes a potential factor in progressively reducing individual tax compliance. A more extensive discussion is presented in the discussion.

Keywords

digital literacy, fiscal psychology, social representation, tax

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