Public Trust in Tax Authorities and Compliance Behaviour: Evidence from South East Nigeria

This study empirically investigates the relationship between public trust in tax authorities and tax compliance behaviour in the South East geopolitical zone of Nigeria. The trust-compliance nexus is well-theorised in the tax psychology literature, with legitimacy theory predicting that voluntary compliance increases when taxpayers trust that revenue authorities act fairly, competently, and transparently. In the South East, characterised by a strong entrepreneurial culture and historically complex government-citizen relations, this relationship may follow patterns distinct from other Nigerian zones. Using a multi-state survey design, the study samples 500 individual and business taxpayers proportionally across Anambra, Imo, Enugu, Ebonyi, and Abia states. The questionnaire operationalises procedural fairness, distributional fairness, institutional competence, and personal trust through validated five-point Likert scales. Tax compliance is measured through a combination of self-reports and administrative filing records where available. Structural equation modelling with latent variable analysis is employed. The study expects to find that procedural fairness, particularly respectful and transparent treatment by revenue officers, is the strongest predictor of trust, which in turn positively and significantly predicts compliance intention. The mediating role of tax morale in the trust-compliance pathway is also examined. Contributions include a structurally estimated trust-compliance model anchored in South East Nigerian institutional realities. Recommendations address revenue officer training, accountability mechanisms, and complaint handling processes. Keywords: public trust, tax authorities, compliance behaviour, South East Nigeria, legitimacy theory.