Padam Bahadur Lama

Tax compliance is the determining factor in tax report submission, enhancing tax awareness. A low level of tax compliance (TC) directly affects the government revenue and low inflow of information regarding taxpayers. This study uses descriptive and explanatory research approaches to identify determinants of residential rental income tax compliances (TC) among property owners in Kathmandu Metropolitan City, Nepal. A total of 1,129 structured questionnaires were distributed among the households of Kathmandu Valley for the cross-sectional and primary data, and only 500 (44.29 percent) useful responses were received from the respondents as the population was unknown. The response rate exceeds the estimated sample size of 384. The findings revealed a significant positive impact of tax rate on tax compliances (r = 0.329**, P<0.05). Fines and penalty (FP) and tax compliance (TC) found a positive and significant association depicting (r =.398**, P<0.05). Similarly, there was a positive and significant relationship (r = .612**, P<0.05) between attitudes and perception (AP) and tax compliance (TC). Moreover, a positive and significant association was found (r =.410**, P<0.05) between tax knowledge (TK) and tax compliance (TC). Furthermore, tax policy (TP) was positively and significantly associated (r = .440**, P<0.05) with tax compliance (TC). This study enhances taxpayers’ knowledge and helps to execute the policies to increase the efficiency and transparency of the tax system in Nepal.

Acknowledgment
The authors would like to express their gratitude to Prof. Dr. Achyut Gnawali and Mr. Prem Bahadur Budhathoki, Associate Professor, and Dr. Gangaram Bishowakarma, Assistant Professor of Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal, for extending warm support towards the research work through the academic inputs.

Investor behavioral factors determine the investment decisions of individual investors in the stock market. The study investigated behavioral factors driving investment decisions in Nepal’s stock market, contributing to existing literature. The behavioral factors comprise heuristics, prospects, and herding as predictors and investment decisions as a response variable. Thus, the study adopted a descriptive and analytical research design to test the research hypotheses and resolve the research questions and issues. A survey was conducted among individual investors registered with Nepal’s trading management system (TMS). A total of 526 structured questionnaires were distributed to targeted respondents, and only 350 useful questionnaires (66.54 percent) were received. The survey data of cross-sectional type were encompassed with a random clustering sampling method for this study. Further, the study employed descriptive statistics to depict the characteristics of respondents’ profiles, correlation analysis to assess the association between predictors and response variables, and linear regression analysis to investigate the impact of predictors on response variables. Similarly, Cronbach’s alpha was tested to observe reliability in the study. The survey findings showed a positive and significant association between heuristics and investment decisions (β = 0.088, p < 0.05). The prospect is positively linked with the individual’s investment decision but found insignificant (β = 0.011, p > 0.05). Finally, herding found a positive and significant association with investment decisions (β = 0.235, p < 0.05). The findings of this study contribute to existing theory and can be a benchmark for decision-makers and policymakers, investors, and others.