The Influence of Knowledge, Islamic Religiosity and Self-Efficacy on the Intention to Pay Income Zakat among Public Educators in Kedah, Malaysia

Zakat is not only a religious obligation which must be complied by all eligible Muslims but also plays a very important role in Islamic fiscal system, specifically as a major source of income and could be used as an instrument to finance certain programs in order to achieve social, political and economic development among Muslim communities. However, the issue which arises is that zakat collection including income zakat is still low which hinders the effectiveness of zakat in playing a more significant role in the state of Kedah. Therefore, this study examines determinants of compliance behavior of income zakat by adding Islamic religiosity and moral obligation to the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) in order to gain more understanding of determinants of employment income zakat. The sample size used in this study is 372. This study uses PLS-SEM bootstrap and blindfolding technique in order to examine the relationship, effect size and predictive relevance of the variables of the study. This study proves that attitude, self-efficacy, moral obligation and religiosity have significant relationships and positive influence on intention. However, it is revealed there is no significant relationship between subjective norms, knowledge, perception towards promotional exposure, perception towards law, perception towards service quality, and perception towards equity in zakat distribution, tax rebate, and intention. Furthermore, the finding of this study demonstrates that Islamic religiosity plays a significant role in moderating the relationships between (i) moral obligation and intention and (ii) promotion and intention. Moreover, this study verifies that intention not only has a significant relationship but also significant and large effect size and large predictive relevance on compliance behavior. The findings of this study have important implications not only for knowledge but also to zakat institutions. The empirical evidence has important implications for theory as well as policy. Using a new method, PLS-SEM, this study is able to provide empirical evidence which is in line with findings of previous studies as well as new findings which expand the boundary of knowledge in the area of compliance behavior of zakat. The important contribution of this study is that the factors identified as significant determinants of compliance behavior of income zakat such as attitude, self-efficacy, moral obligation and Islamic religiosity could be useful as a guide for relevant authorities and policy makers to formulate suitable strategies to increase zakat collection in the future.