Designing a Digital First Tax Literacy Model for Immigrant-Owned SMEs in the U.S.: A Compliance-by-Design Approach

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@article{1713424,
      author = {Sabelo Nare, Munashe Naphtali Mupa, Catherine Danda, Last Chingezi, Nelia Mlambo},
      title = {Designing a Digital First Tax Literacy Model for Immigrant-Owned SMEs in the U.S.: A Compliance-by-Design Approach},
      journal = {Iconic Research And Engineering Journals},
      year = {2026},
      volume = {9},
      number = {7},
      pages = {624-634},
      issn = {2456-8880},
      url = {https://www.irejournals.com/formatedpaper/1713424.pdf},
      abstract = {The article introduces a digital-first and compliance-by-design model of tax literacy in the United States among immigrant-owned small and medium enterprises (SMEs). According to behavioral and digital literacy theories, it provides standard points of compliance pain, such as record-keeping, estimated taxes, credit claims, and multi-state sales tax, with the digital interventions that could be used, such as interactive checklists, calculators, and micro-learning modules (Hartmann, Mueller, and Kirchler, 2020; Arham and Firmansyah, 2021). According to the pilot information on the chosen communities of diaspora, the scheme is demonstrated to have measurable quality improvements in the precision of filing and the uptake of tax credits, which aligns with the ambitions of inclusive entrepreneurship and equity (Akinbami, 2025; Lam, 2019). The model integrates the empirical findings of the new research on SME financial literacy and immigrant entrepreneurship (Chamidah, Susyanti, and Hidayah, 2025; Huang and Liu, 2019) and suggests the directions of integrating compliance into the digital tools that are popular among SMEs. The findings are useful to both policy and practice in showing how technology can be incorporated to democratize tax compliance among different entrepreneurs.},
      month = {January},
  }