Chapter 2. Special feature: Electronic services in tax administration

The level of tax revenues in an economy is influenced by tax policy and tax administration as well as the level of taxpayer compliance and government enforcement. Developments in information and communication technology (ICT) in recent decades, both for electronic filing and payment of taxes, have presented many opportunities for revenue bodies to increase government revenue, improve efficiency, and enhance the quality of services delivered to taxpayers, while at the same time reducing taxpayer compliance burden and government administration costs, and improving enforcement.

While the attention of revenue bodies was initially focused on the computerisation of routine tax administration processes (e.g. taxpayer registration and revenue accounting), the later part of the last decade and the early part of this decade saw most tax administrations tailoring their websites to provide transaction services as well as online forms and calculators for taxpayers. Initially many of the services concentrate on the electronic filing of tax returns for the major taxes and the electronic payment of taxes. Subsequently administrations adopted more two-way services including alerts and notifications. They also developed automated systems and processes for exchanging taxpayer data between businesses, government bodies and revenue bodies.

More recently administrations have developed:

• Systems that, subject to security safeguards, provide taxpayers with online access to their own taxpayer information (e.g. registration and accounting details);

• Mobile applications that allow taxpayers to undertake inquiries on their tax account and increasingly to be able to pay and file;

• Self-service options, especially utilising technologies that allow the provision of more personalised services and automated support.