Readability assessment of Nigerian company income tax act
This study was undertaken to examine the readability of the Nigerian Company Income Tax Act 2007 (CITA 2007), which is the main reference for taxpayers who have intention to comply. For that purpose, the researchers employed readability formulae namely Flesch Reading Ease Score (FRES), Flesch-Kin...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
2015
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/9517/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/9517/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/9517/1/11133-30901-1-PB.pdf |
| Summary: | This study was undertaken to examine the readability of the Nigerian Company Income Tax Act
2007 (CITA 2007), which is the main reference for taxpayers who have intention to comply. For
that purpose, the researchers employed readability formulae namely Flesch Reading Ease Score
(FRES), Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level (F-KGL), Average Sentence Length (ASL) and Percentage
of Passive Voice (PPV). FRES measures the readability of technical writing and rates texts on a
0-100-point scale, while F-KGL translates the 0-100 raw FRES into the number of years of
education generally required to understand the materials. On the other hand, ASL and PPV deal
with average length and percentage of passive voice, respectively. All these measures were
calculated using Microsoft Word 2000. The study found that CITA 2007 has low level of
readability which made the Act very difficult to understand. Further, the results indicate that
CITA 2007 can only be understood by those with tertiary education. The study recommends that
tax simplification policy in Nigeria should include language simplification to enable taxpayers to
understand the Act correctly which subsequently motivate them to comply voluntarily; and
consequently result in more tax revenue to boost the economy of the nation. |
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