White paper: Digital transformation of tax administration


Johannesburg, 21 Jun 2019

The globalisation and digitisation of business has led to a huge increase in trade transactions around the world. Up until recently, tax administrations had been able to handle this level of growth. However, within the past few years an unprecedented flow of information mixed with an increased use of social media has complicated matters. Furthermore, multiple projects such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS), the Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI), the Common Reporting Standard (CRS), the exchange of tax rulings within the European Union (EU) and taxpayer demand for public tax transparency, have all presented additional challenges. Tax administrations need actionable data insights to handle these issues, improve services and optimise operational excellence.

The Intra-European Organization of Tax Administrations (IOTA) views incorporating the digital world within the taxpayer experience as the highest priority for tax administrations going forward. Connected compliance represents another important standard that will have to be addressed with integrated, automated services and communications between governments and other government administrations (G2G), government and citizens (G2C) and government and business (G2B).

This white paper is one in a series of publications addressing the digital transformation journey that tax administrations will need to embark on to help their countries’ overall health and stability, economic growth and attractiveness to investors. In this first edition, we establish the overarching vision of digital transformation, how to travel through the roadmap and how technology can accelerate change.

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