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This paper examines citizens' attitudes toward paying taxes – what is sometimes termed their “tax morale” or the intrinsic motivation to pay taxes – focusing on the experience of individuals in the Russian Federation before, during, and after the transition from a planned socialist economy to a market‐based economy.

Micro‐level data for Russia from the World Values Survey and the European Values Survey for the years 1991, 1995, and 1999 are used to estimate the determinants of individuals' attitudes toward paying taxes. The data also allow the examination of the evolution of tax morale in the regions of Russia.

The estimation results show decay in tax morale in the first four years of the transition, and a small recovery in 1999. Significant regional differences in tax morale are also found.

The results are consistent with the relevance of social norms in tax compliance, where the widespread perception of tax evasion and of a corrupt and inefficient state led initially to a decline of tax morale. The results also indicate that the restoration of a higher level of trust in the state, after some progress in the transition to a market economy, positively influenced tax morale.

The results suggest, once tax morale is crowded out, it is difficult for government to raise tax morale very quickly back to previous levels. Doing so requires designing tax systems, tax administrations, and government structures that inspire trust and pride in governmental and legal institutions.

A unique aspect of the analysis is the ability to study tax morale at the individual level before (1991), during (1995), and shortly after (1999) the Russian transition.

The purpose of this study is to examine the contribution of tax morale, compliance costs and tax compliance of financial services firms in Uganda.

This study is cross-sectional and correlational and adopts firm-level data collected using a questionnaire survey of 210 financial services firms in Uganda from which usable questionnaires were received from 152 financial services firms.

Tax morale and compliance costs contribute up to 20.6 per cent of the variance in tax compliance of the financial services firms. Tax morale and tax compliance are positively and significantly associated. Results further indicate that compliance costs and tax compliance are positively and significantly associated. National pride and trust in government and its legal systems as dimensions of tax morale independently are significantly associated with tax compliance. Results also indicate that administration costs and specialist costs as dimensions of compliance costs individually are significantly associated with tax compliance.

This study results should be generalized with caution, as they are limited to the financial services firms in Uganda.

Whereas there has been a number of studies on tax compliance in both developed and developing countries, this is the first study on the African scene to examine the contribution of tax morale and compliance costs on tax compliance of financial services firms in a single suite. It is unbelievable that the financial services firms, especially commercial banks which are highly regulated by the central bank in many developing countries, can afford to report tax payables year after year.