An analytical study on the impact of adoption of taxes on the performance of retailers in Male', Maldives / Ismail Mohamed

Abstract:

Retail business is an important contributor to a country's economy through private sector. Taxes are raised to facilitate the provision of essentials and development to individuals and businesses. Local investments such as retailers among MSMEs are entitled for GST and BPT in the Maldives. The transformation of Maldives from a Tax Heaven to a Tax Regime might have impacted retailers' performance due to increase of expenses and limit scope of retailers in greater Male'. This region was chosen because the retailers in the area face more challenges than any other region and researcher is in the vicinity of this region. The question to be answered is therefore to realize if there were any impact and measure the degree of the effect if there were any impact. A sample involving sixty respondents revealed there were no significant negative impact to the performance due to taxes but the expenses margin has risen especially for the BPT payers among retailers. It also revealed that there are certain problems to be addressed associated with the way taxes are collected and therefore requires easier ways in fulfilling all their tax obligations in the region.

Keywords: impact, tax/taxes, performance, retailers.