The objective of this study was to examine the determinants of tax evasion in Bahir Dar city from small and medium scale enterprise (SMEs) tax payers‘ point of view in 2019. An explanatory research design was employed to examine five tax evasion determinants namely government performance, tax policy fairness, deterrence, attitude and knowledge in tax issues. The study revealed that deterrence, government performance, attitude and knowledge in tax issues determine tax evasion negatively and statistically significant. On the other hand, policy fairness has been found affecting tax evasion negatively but statistically insignificant. Accordingly, the study recommends that government should improve the audit regime alongside imposing tough tax penalties, improve its performance, raise awareness, and improve attitudes of SMEs through tax education, training and press secretaries etc., if curbing tax evasion is to be the deriving engines of tax revenue. Finally, the inclusion of additional variables like political affiliation, cultural influence and religiosity may be potential extension of the present research.