Keshav Narayan Shrestha 1 , Rohit Karki 2
1 Department of Management, G.P. Koirala Memorial (Community) College, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal
Corresponding author: Keshav Narayan Shrestha, E-mail: keshav.shrestha@gpkmc.edu.np
2 Department of Management, G.P. Koirala Memorial (Community) College, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu, Nepal
Issue: Vol. 2 No. 3 (September 2026) – Anubodhan
Received: 15 September 2026 / Accepted: 22 September 2026 / Published online: 30 September 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.65885/anubodhan.v2n3.2026.124
Abstract
This study explores the lived experiences of informal taxation among wholesale traders in Asan Bazaar and New Road, Kathmandu. Despite the expansion of Nepal’s formal tax system through tax registration, billing, bookkeeping, and electronic tax administration, informal tax-related practices continue to coexist with formal taxation. The study aims to understand how wholesale traders experience, interpret, and negotiate informal taxation in their everyday business activities. A qualitative phenomenological approach was adopted, and data were collected through semi-structured interviews with wholesale traders from Asan Bazaar and New Road. The interview data were analyzed thematically to identify recurring meanings, experiences, and patterns. The findings indicate that informal tax practices are influenced by social norms, peer relationships, intergenerational business practices, perceptions of tax fairness, trust in tax authorities, and experiences of unequal enforcement. Participants’ experiences further suggest that certain informal practices become normalized within the trading environment and operate alongside formal taxation. The study also indicates that traders’ willingness to comply with formal tax obligations is conditional upon their perceptions of fairness, transparency, trust, and administrative effectiveness. The study contributes to understanding informal taxation as a socially embedded phenomenon shaped by institutional and marketplace contexts rather than solely as an issue of legal non-compliance.
Keywords: Informal taxation, Tax culture, Tax compliance, Lived experience, Wholesale traders.
How to cite: Shreshtha, K. N., & Karki, R. (2026). Informal Tax Culture among Wholesale Traders in Asan and New Road, Kathmandu: A Phenomenological Study. Anubodhan, 2(3), 283–294. https://doi.org/10.65885/anubodhan.v2n3.2026.124