The objective of this paper is to examine the factors that determine whether a tax payer would evade tax. It also seeks to explore the mediating role of tax education in the relationship between traditional, institutional, socio-cultural factors and tax evasion. A cross-sectional survey was use for the study. Using structural equation modelling with bootstrapping analysis, data from a sample of 1,052 tax payers, drawn from different part of the country was analysed and the result showed that, traditional factors and institutional factors positively influenced tax evasion. This relationship was also found to be mediated by tax education as it relate negatively with traditional and institutional factors as well as tax evasion. It was also found that, socio-cultural factors such as gender, income level, education and age does not have significant influence on tax evasion.

Keywords: tax evasion, tax rate, tax education, structural equation modelling