Taxpayers Ethical Behaviour on Faithful Presentation of Financial Statements and Timely Filing of Returns in Deposit Money Banks Listed in Nigeria

Taxpayers’ compliance with all relevant tax laws and regulations will enhance the revenue generation of the federal government. However, non-compliance with tax laws arises from the determination of taxpayers to reduce their tax liabilities through evasion or avoidance, incorrect completion of tax returns and failure to disclose the required information, which results into loss of income to the government. Studies have shown that tax authorities have not fully integrated taxpayer ethical behaviour as a motivating factor for tax compliance, therefore the study evaluated the effect of taxpayers’ ethical behaviour on faithful presentation in the financial statements and timely filing of returns of listed Deposit Money Banks in Nigeria. The survey research design was adopted for this study. The population was 1606 officials of the selected banks. Cochran formular was used to select 403 staff. Random sampling technique was used to administer 403 questionnaires to the respondents. 374 copies were retrieved representing 94% retrieval rate. The Cronbach alpha reliability coefficients ranged from 0.720 to 0.820. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential (multiple regression) statistics. The result found that taxpayers’ ethical behaviour had significant effect on faithful presentation of financial statements (Adj. R2=0.659, F=146.86, p