192 – 5. RESOURCES OF NATIONAL REVENUE BODIES

revised to take account of new data provided by a few revenue bodies or to correct errors detected in the data originally used for these calculations. In a few cases (e.g. Germany), this action has resulted in major changes to previously published ratios.

/3. Estonia: Ratios for 2005 to 2007 include customs operations but not for subsequent years; Iceland: The computed ratios for these years are understated as not all costs appear to have been quantified for survey reporting purposes; Italy: The computed ratios for these years significantly understate the true ratio as they do not take account of expenditure incurred on tax related work carried out by other agencies (e.g. the tax fraud work of the Guardia di Finanza and enforced debt collection activities performed by Equitalia spa) that have not been quantified. United States: Ratios indicated vary from IRS-published ratios owing to use of “net” and not “gross” revenue collections as the denominator.

Table 5.4. Tax Administration expenditure/gross domestic product (GDP)

/1. GDP at market prices in millions of national currency.

/2. Cyprus: Data revised to correct errors detected in the data originally used. Payments made on behalf of IRD and VAT by other government departments are not reflected in these specific years. Italy: Calculations up to 2009 based on cost data provided for tax related functions of revenue body (Agenzia Entrate), tax-related work of separate tax police body (Guardia di Finanza), and separate tax debt collection function (Equitalia); data not provided for subsequent years.

Table 5.5. Revenue body staff usage and related ratios

/1. Use of the information in this table should pay close regard to the comments in the preceding text of this chapter.

/2. All countries: The data shown have been drawn from individual country survey responses unless otherwise indicated; the definition of the number of person-days that constitute one person year (one full time equivalent (FTE)) varies from country to country; for the purpose of this tabulation and related analysis no attempt has been made to apply a standard definition in order to arrive at a more consistently based summary of aggregate FTEs/revenue body; Italy: Data refers to Revenue Agency only and excludes Equitalia (debt collection), Guardia di Finanza (tax fraud work) and Sogie (data processing); Singapore: Staff strength at 31 March 2011. Staff usage ratios for Singapore are calculated based on population which includes Singapore citizens, permanent residents and foreigners.

Table 5.6. Staff usage in 2011 by major tax function groupings (% of total usage)

/1. The data on distribution of resources should be treated with caution owing to differences in interpretation between countries on the functional split used and organisational arrangements in place.

/2. Brazil and Ireland: Data includes Customs; Italy: Data for revenue body agency only and excludes Equitalia (debt collection), Guardia di Finanza (tax fraud work) and Sogie (data processing); Japan: Inseparable from the audit, investigation and other verification function and debt collection function; Korea: Staff in taxpayer account management and verification functions are also engaged in the work of debt collection and there is no dedicated unit for debt collection; Singapore: Staff strength at 31 March 2011; Sweden: Data exclude Enforcement Agency which carries out enforced tax debt collection functions.

/3. Sweden: Includes all HQ staff.

Bibliography

OECD (2012), Working Smarter in Structuring the Administration, Compliance, and through Legislation, Forum on Tax Administration, Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, OECD, Paris.

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