INTRODUCTION – 17

Introduction

Tax Administration 2013 is the fifth edition of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration’s Comparative Information Series. This series provides internationally comparative data on aspects of tax systems and their administration in 52 advanced and emerging economies. The primary purpose of the series is to provide information that will facilitate dialogue among tax officials on tax administration issues, and which may also identify opportunities for ministries of finance and revenue bodies to improve the design and administration of their tax systems.

The information provided in this edition has been obtained from a survey of revenue bodies in the countries covered by the series conducted in 2012, and from research of revenue bodies’ key corporate documents (e.g. strategic plans and annual performance reports), other OECD tax publications and other sources conducted by officials of the OECD’s Centre for Tax Policy and Administration. Every effort has been made with relevant revenue bodies to validate the information displayed in the series and to note the sources of information used.

As for prior editions, a selection of non-OECD countries has also been included in the series to enhance the objective of providing a rich set of international comparisons and to benefit a larger number of economies. The criteria used to identify non-OECD countries invited to participate in the series were:

Countries that are formal observers to the CFA (i.e. Argentina, China, India, South Africa, and the Russian Federation);

Non-OECD countries that are members of the European Union (i.e. Bulgaria, Cyprus 1, 2, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, and Romania);

Countries whose revenue body has worked closely with the FTA over recent years (i.e. Colombia, Hong Kong (China), Malaysia and Singapore); and

G20 countries not captured by the abovementioned criteria (i.e. Brazil, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia).

The series identifies fundamental elements of modern tax administration systems and uses data, analyses and examples to highlight key trends, recent innovations, and examples of good practice and performance measures/indicators. It also includes reasonably comprehensive data and related ratios on resource usage and revenue body performance, for some categories including data for the seven years up to fiscal year 2011. Armed with such knowledge, revenue body officials should be better equipped to undertake their own comparative analyses and benchmarking studies, particularly for performance-related aspects and for assessing comparative efficiency.

TAX ADMINISTRATION 2013: COMPARATIVE INFORMATION ON OECD AND OTHER ADVANCED AND EMERGING ECONOMIES – © OECD 2013

18 – INTRODUCTION

The publication is structured as follows:

Chapter 1 describes the institutional arrangements put in place by Governments to conduct national revenue administration operations, including related oversight bodies.

Chapter 2 outlines the organisational set-ups adopted by revenue bodies and identify important reforms recently implemented, in course of adoption, or planned.

Chapter 3 provides brief information on revenue body practices for specific aspects of strategic management, including the management of taxpayers’ compliance.

Chapter 4 provides an overview of human resource management aspects, including recruitment, development, performance management, and remuneration.

Chapter 5 provides summary data and analyses (covering multi-years) of the resources allocated to revenue bodies to administer national tax laws.

Chapter 6 sets out summary operational performance data (covering multi-years) for key areas of administration (e.g. revenue collections and refunds, service delivery, verification, disputes, and debt collection).

Chapter 7 identifies approaches and developments with the provision of modern electronic services to assist taxpayers meet their tax obligations, and include performance data concerning the take-up of electronic filing and payments systems and use of prefilled tax returns.

Chapter 8, a new addition to the series, describes features of revenue bodies’ approaches for supporting the work of tax intermediaries.

Chapter 9 provides an overview of the legal/administrative frameworks in place for tax collection including: taxpayers’ rights; provision of rulings; return filing, tax payment and assessment (major taxes); information gathering, enforced debt collection, and sanctions.

The publication concludes with a set of tables containing important historical taxrelated data that are used to compute the ratios contained in chapters five and six, and a summary of individual country/revenue body-related information.

Notes

1.Footnote by Turkey:

The information in this document with reference to “Cyprus” relates to the southern part of the Island. There is no single authority representing both Turkish and Greek Cypriot people on the Island. Turkey recognises the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). Until a lasting and equitable solution is found within the context of United Nations, Turkey shall preserve its position concerning the “Cyprus” issue.”

2.Footnote by all the European Union Member states of the OECD and the European Union:

“The Republic of Cyprus is recognised by all members of the United Nations with the exception of Turkey. The information in this document relates to the area under the effective control of the Government of the Republic of Cyprus.”

TAX ADMINISTRATION 2013: COMPARATIVE INFORMATION ON OECD AND OTHER ADVANCED AND EMERGING ECONOMIES – © OECD 2013