The ability to access the state as a taxpaying citizen is important for the purposes of buildingtrust and reciprocity, voicing grievances and disseminating knowledge, and strengthening taxcompliance and transparency. Based on original empirical data, this paper elaborates a theoret-ical argument of how state-citizen encounters in the case of taxation are conditioned by fiveinteracting factors. Drawing on interviews with tax officials and taxpayers in Windhoek, Na-mibia, this paper shows that these five factors are weakly present and negatively reinforce eachother, thereby providing insights into the Namibian tax system and everyday state-citizen taxencounters in developing countries.