The Concept of Tax Compliance and Estimation of its Rate in Iranian Tax System

The most important goal of a tax system is to increase tax compliance level. There is a clear and exact definition of tax compliance in the developed tax systems, while this concept is an unknown area in Iranian tax system. In Iranian tax texts, compliance is doing one's tax obligations according to the law. This definition is vague. The current paper has three main goals: a) studying different meanings of tax compliance in Iranian tax law, b) selection of a clear and precise definition of tax compliance and c) estimation of tax compliance rate and its obstacles in Iranian tax system. Our research method is based on library research method. The results indicate that tax compliance rate in Iran has increased from 18.8 percent to 49 percent between 2002 and 2009.