We surveyed a random sample of self-employed taxpayers using an online questionnaire. To find out more about the attitudes of micro businesses towards tax compliance, self-employed individuals were preferred as a sample for two reasons: (1) compared to PAYE individuals, they have greater opportunity of noncompliance, making tax compliance a more relevant topic, and one that they have experience of; (2) in business structures, compliance decisions may be distributed among several individuals; as such, a study of psychological compliance decisions is most relevant for individuals as opposed to businesses. We used a range of descriptive and inferential statistical techniques to analyse the resulting data, including multi-level modelling. Data was obtained from an online survey, designed to capture a range of tax compliance attitudes and perceptions based on prior survey based research conducted in other countries. One of the aims of the research was to attempt to capture different forms of compliance (enforced and voluntary) and non-compliance (avoidance and evasion) (Kirchler & Wahl, 2010). These distinctions are essential for a fine-grained understanding compliance behaviour. We adapted the existing TAX-I inventory which captures these different types of compliance and non-compliance, and we find based on the data analysis that the TAX-I proved valid in measuring compliance and non-compliance in a UK sample. We have also identified an additional factor we named ‘tax planning’, distinct from ‘tax avoidance’.330 owners of micro businesses were surveyed in two data collection sessions in February and June 2015. As part of the work of the Tax Administration Research Centre, this sub-project was designed to find out more about the attitudes of micro businesses towards tax compliance, Self-employed individuals were selected for two reasons: (1) compared to PAYE individuals, they have greater opportunity of noncompliance, making tax compliance a more relevant topic, and one that they have experience of; (2) in business structures, compliance decisions may be distributed among several individuals; as such, a study of psychological compliance decisions is most relevant for individuals as opposed to businesses. We surveyed a random sample of self-employed taxpayers using an online questionnaire. We used a range of descriptive and inferential statistical techniques to analyse the resulting data, including multi-level modelling. Respondents were anonymous.

On-line survey. A random sample of 21,000 micro businesses (simple randomisation) was provided by Experian. 330 owners were surveyed by email in two data collection sessions in February and June 2015. The sample included businesses with under 10 employees, turnover under £1.6m and included both self employed (sole traders) and limited companies. The data was collected anonymously and participants were rewarded with a £5 cheque for participating and the opportunity to win shopping vouchers. The response rate was 1.57%, which limits the analysis. The measures used were pilot tested on an initial sample of 30 small business owners.