Electronic Services and Tax Compliance: Evidence from Medium and Small Businesses in Burkina Faso

This paper examines the adoption and impact of electronic tax services, specifically registration for and usage of e-filing, and e-payment of taxes, by small and medium enterprises in Burkina Faso. Using a unique dataset that merges survey responses from 1,090 SMEs with administrative tax records, we first document the key drivers of adoption, including business age, legal status, sector, internet access and use of electronic billing. Adoption significantly improves compliance margins: registering for and using eSINTAX increases declared tax liabilities by about 41–43 per cent, while paying digitally increases tax paid by about 22 per cent. Timeliness of filing also improves markedly: registering for eSINTAX increases the probability of filing on time by about 40 per cent relative to the control-group mean, while actual e-filing increases it by about 67 per cent. These effects are partly explained by changes in taxpayer perceptions: digital services are weakly associated with improved ease of filing and post-adjustment compliance, and more strongly with enhanced trust, fairness, transparency in the tax system, and reduce perceived corruption. The findings suggest that targeted awareness campaigns, practical training, and investment in digital infrastructure and secure e-payment systems can strengthen tax compliance through digitalisation.