The OECD Forum on Tax Administration (FTA) first developed a maturity model in 2016 in order to help tax administrations assess digital maturity in the two areas of natural systems/portals and big data. The digital maturity model was introduced in the 2016 OECD report Technologies for Better Tax Administration.
Building on this, work began in 2018 to develop a set of stand-alone maturity models covering both functional areas of tax administration, such as auditing and human resource management, as well as more specialised areas such as enterprise risk management, analytics and the measurement and minimisation of compliance burdens. In designing the maturity models, it was decided to use the middle level, termed "Established", to provide a description of where, on average, FTA members may be expected to cluster. Using this as an anchor, the other levels of maturity were fleshed out providing a pathway from "Emerging" to "Aspirational" with the latter maturity level seeking to describe what might be possible in the future given expected developments. There is also no judgement within the models themselves as to what the optimal level is for a particular tax administration. This will depend on their own circumstances, objectives and priorities.
The aim is that over time a series of tax administration maturity models will be published in downloadable format covering a wide range of tax administration activities. The intention of the models is to:
- Allow tax administrations to self-assess through internal discussions as to where they see themselves as regards maturity in various activities and functions.
- Provide officials working in an area, including senior leadership of the tax administration, with a good oversight of the level of maturity based on input from other stakeholders across the organisation.
- Help facilitate discussions on future strategy as well as identifying areas for further short-term improvement, including where that needs to be supported by the actions of other parts of the tax administration.
- Allow tax administrations to see where they sit compared to their peers.
