Latest Documents

This report looks at effective e-service provision by tax administrations, summarising eight critical areas, and explores big data management and portals, as well as natural systems, in detail. It highlights key opportunities in these areas, looking at how these emerging technologies can be best used by tax administrations. It also provides practical examples of how tax administrations have begun to utilise these technologies and delivers a maturity matrix for the two areas to assist strategic and operational decision making by tax administrations. Finally, it sets out conclusions, recommendations and next steps. This report has been prepared by the Forum on Tax Administration’s E-services and Digital Delivery Programme. The work was initiated by the FTA Bureau as part of its 2015/16 work programme and was led by the Federal Tax Service of Russia (FTS).  With tax administrations clear that e-service options can improve taxpayer compliance levels and participation while at the same time lowering their cost of operation; but with available options many and varied, and with the cost of implementation high,  the FTA has over the last five years provided a wide range of guidance in the deployment of effective e-services.  

This report outlines the essential features of a Tax Control Framework (TCF) and addresses revenue bodies’ expectations of TCFs. It includes a discussion of the issue of materiality, as it is important to understand the relationship between what is material for the purposes of systems of control, such as the external audit of a multinational enterprise’s accounts, and what is material in terms of the tax liabilities arising from that enterprise’s activities in a particular country. It also discusses how revenue bodies could approach the task of testing the soundness of a TCF in any particular case and finally, sets out conclusions, recommendations and next steps.

This report highlights the key opportunities and challenges in establishing, operating, or improving advanced analytics functions in tax administrations. The report provides practical examples of how administrations are currently utilising advanced analytics, and discusses key topics, including organisational arrangements, governance, management and data. The report also discusses how administrations are utilising analytics to improve their operations and deliver better outcomes to taxpayers. Finally, it sets out conclusions, recommendations and next steps. This report has been prepared by the Forum on Tax Administration’s Advanced Analytics Programme. The work was initiated by the FTA Bureau following the biennial conference on Advanced Analytics hosted by the Irish Revenue Commissioners in March 2015. That workshop identified member country interest in undertaking work to identify member experience in analytics delivery and share information on both the technologies and tools they were using.  

Building on prior work that resulted in the practical guide Managing Service Demand, this report explores the strategies revenue bodies can use to improve take-up of self-service channels in the context of a proposed future service experience for individuals, businesses and tax intermediaries.

Many revenue bodies have been developing strategies and approaches to improve the tax collection and recovery processes, so that they are more effective and cost less. Very promising and proven new practices have emerged, which can deliver spectacular improvements in performance in tax collection and recovery. This report provides a comprehensive overview of the best practices in tax debt management, with a particular emphasis on how to better differentiate debtors when deciding how to best secure payment and what can be done to ensure that payment issues are considered earlier in the compliance and collection process.

This study provides practical guidance to revenue bodies wishing to enhance and enrich their existing measures with timely measures of compliance outcomes. The study shares experiences of what has worked for revenue bodies, what challenges have been faced and how they might be overcome.

This study introduces the concept of 'Tax Compliance by design'. It describes how revenue bodies can exploit developments in technology and the ways in which modern SMEs organise themselves to incorporate tax compliance into the systems businesses use to manage their financial affairs.

Revenue bodies are increasingly focusing on improving their understanding of taxpayers and taking advantage of opportunities for collaboration where win-win situations exists. This is not least true for the large and heterogeneous SME segment, which in many countries has proven difficult and costly to administer with traditional approaches. This Forum on Tax Administration study provides inspiration and guidance to revenue bodies wishing to explore the potential for improving outcomes, reducing costs, improving services and generating other benefits by engaging and involving SME taxpayers and stakeholders. The study provides a conceptual framework illustrating the benefits and situating the approach in the context of public sector reform, technological developments and trends in compliance risk management. It further provides a comprehensive review of current and emerging practices across the areas of information and guidance, compliance risk management, and systemic solutions. Finally the study provides guidance to support successful implementation. The study finds that while revenue bodies have substantial experience to build on, there is also potential for more systematic, far-reaching and potentially transformative approaches. A key barrier in this regard is that performance metrics relying extensively on output measures channel resources and attention away from innovative approaches that work back from the desired ultimate outcomes.