The Role of Communication Between Auditors and Taxpayers in the Context of the Preventive Audit

Auditing stands to be a strong enforcement mechanism in bringing tax compliance, safeguards public revenue and is strongly influenced by communication between auditors and audited taxpayers. This present work studied the opinions of auditors of the auditing body of the Public Revenue Research and Assurance Services (Y.E.D.D.E.) in order to investigate the communication between them and the taxpayers in the context of the preventive audit. Primary research was conducted. Findings from previous research were utilized and a questionnaire was used to collect primary data. The survey was conducted all over Greece by randomly sampling 120 auditors. This study provides useful insights for policymakers and implies that investigating the causes of taxpayers’ aggressiveness, providing lifelong education to auditors, enhancing collaboration between auditors and the fairness and efficiency of the tax system would have a beneficial effect on the communication between tax auditors and taxpayers and thus on tax compliance.