In the past few years, tax education has become one of the strategic business lines of many tax authorities globally, especially in developing countries with low levels of tax compliance. Various tax education programmes have been developed to engage not only existing taxpayers but also future taxpayers. Tax authorities provide tax education for future taxpayers (students) as a long-term investment in shifting attitudes and behaviour towards taxation. One of the programmes is to incorporate taxation into the education curriculum, ranging from primary school through to tertiary education, making the programme to be more systematic. Despite the importance of tax education, limited research has focused specifically on the implementation of tax education programmes, especially in teaching taxation to students as future taxpayers.

This qualitative study draws on a case study of a tax education programme in Indonesia, where taxation has been taught to students at the tertiary education level as a part of citizenship education in the curriculum. This study aims to investigate the implementation of the programme and explore the factors that could influence the implementation. By using Neo-institutional Theory in Organisation Studies, this study, first, explores how Indonesia’s tax authority operationalises tax education in the form of the integration of tax education into the tertiary education curriculum. Subsequently, this study examines how institutional structures (that is, regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive structures) shape the implementation of teaching taxation to students in Indonesian tertiary education institutions. This study employs analysis of documents (that is, educational acts and regulations, curriculum documents, and course syllabuses), and semi-structured interviews with policymakers (that is, Indonesia’s tax authority and education ministry) and academics from eight tertiary education institutions in Indonesia which have implemented the incorporation of tax awareness education into curriculum and teaching practices.

This study contributes to the literature of tax education, by describing the detailed practice of tax education in a particular tax jurisdiction, and identifying key factors that influence the practice. This study also shows the potential role of non-governmental actors (particularly, tertiary education institutions) in the tax education programme. Moreover, the findings of this study indicate the complex interplay between regulative, normative, and cultural- cognitive structures that enable and/or constrain tertiary education institutions (and academics) in incorporating taxation into curriculum and teaching practices. Furthermore, this study also provides practical implications by providing recommendations to policymakers (especially tax authorities) and tertiary education institutions in Indonesia on the tax awareness education programme. However, this study could also be useful for other countries which are implementing tax education programmes or are considering creating such programmes.