Tax Administration 2024

Reader’s guide

Tax Administrations covered by the report

Tax Administration 2024 is the twelfth edition of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration’s comparative Tax Administration Series (TAS). The primary purpose of the series, which commenced in 2004, is to share information that will facilitate dialogue among tax officials on important tax administration issues, and to identify opportunities to improve the design and administration of their systems.

This edition of the series provides internationally comparative data on various aspects of tax systems and their administration in 58 advanced and emerging economies. It covers 54 jurisdictions that are members of the OECD’s Forum on Tax Administration (FTA). In addition, it includes information on the non-FTA jurisdictions that are members of the European Union as well as Morocco and Thailand (which increases the report’s geographical coverage).

ISORA data gathering process and reporting

The publication presents the results of the last four rounds of the International Survey on Revenue Administration (ISORA) which were launched between September 2020 and September 2023. The ISORA survey is a multi-organisation international survey that collects national-level information and data on tax administration. The 2023 ISORA survey was completed by 166 jurisdictions.

The survey is governed by four partner organisations: the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Intra-European Organisation of Tax Administrations (IOTA) and the OECD. Since the 2018 ISORA survey round, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) also participates in ISORA along with the four partner organisations.

The 2023 ISORA survey

The ISORA survey that was launched in September 2023, is the most comprehensive survey on tax administration since 2018. Following the completion of the 2018 ISORA survey, the ISORA partners engaged with participating administrations to gather feedback on the survey process, and they conducted a thorough review of the survey.

As a result of this process, the ISORA survey was split into parts:

1. An annual survey part, collecting data mainly on the annual operational performance of tax administrations; and

2. A periodic survey part, looking at the wider tax administration processes and arrangements which are less likely to change regularly, such as governance, human resource management and compliance risk management.

The 2023 ISORA survey combined both parts taking the first comprehensive look at tax administration in the past five years. The 2020, 2021 and 2022 ISORA surveys only contained the annual survey part. All survey iterations can be accessed via the IMF’s Revenue Administration Fiscal Information Tool (RA-FIT; https://data.rafit.org/) under “Forms and Guides” in the section “Publications/Links”.

The next comprehensive ISORA survey is expected to be conducted in 2028.

Survey management

The last four iterations of the ISORA survey collected data for fiscal years from 2018 to 2022. Survey information was gathered online using the RA-FIT tool. Participation was voluntary and 166 administrations completed the 2023 ISORA survey. Each partner organisation, and the ADB, supported participants by assisting them with the completion of the ISORA survey, based on an upfront agreed allocation key. The 58 administrations included in this publication corresponds to the group of administrations supported by the OECD.

While all data contained in the publication has been subject to a high-level review by the OECD, neither the OECD nor any other partner organisation formally validated the data. As a result, all data included in the publication should be considered as self-reported by the administrations concerned.

Publication of data

Starting with the data collected through the 2020 ISORA survey, all ISORA data is made available to the public on the RA-FIT data portal (https://data.rafit.org/). The data from the 2023 ISORA survey was made available in June 2024.

Historically, the OECD made all ISORA data for TAS participants also publicly available through the TAS and its data annex. This approach changes with the 2024 edition of the TAS. From now on, the TAS will not anymore have its own data annex. Instead, the TAS refers to the publicly available tables on the RA-FIT data portal. (For more information, see further below.)

As regards the other organisations, the ADB publishes jurisdiction-level ISORA data for its members. See, for example, its publication A Comparative Analysis of Tax Administration in Asia and the Pacific: Seventh Edition (Asian Development Bank, 2024[1]). The other ISORA partners, do the following:

• IMF publishes in aggregated form. See, for example, the IMF publication ISORA 2018: Understanding Revenue Administration (Crandall, Gavin and Masters, 2021[2]); and

• CIAT publishes selected data points. See, for example, the CIAT publication Innovation, Digitalization and Technology Index (INDITEC): A tool for benchmarking Tax Administrations at the international level (Based on data from ISORA 2020 Survey) (Díaz de Sarralde Miguez and Morán, 2022[3]).

Data comparability

TAS 2024 includes performance-related data, ratios and other information for the fiscal years from 2018 to 2022. The data for the fiscal years 2018 to 2021 data was collected through the 2020, 2021 and 2022 ISORA surveys and already included in previous editions of the TAS. However, several administrations updated some of their previously supplied data during the process of producing the 2024 edition of the TAS. For that reason, there might be some differences between this and previous editions of the TAS in figures and tables displaying 2018 to 2021 data.

In certain areas, TAS 2024 also uses data from the 2016 and 2018 ISORA rounds to show trends for the period between 2014 and 2022. However, over the past years a number of changes were made to ISORA questions to improve clarity and data quality. Therefore, care needs to be taken when comparing results from the different ISORA versions, and the wording of survey questions compared whenever relevant. The survey questions can be accessed on https://data.rafit.org/ under “Forms and Guides” in the section “Publications/Links”.

Also, it should be noted that statistical data is often subject to revisions after publication. As a result, some data may not correspond to what has been published by administrations. For example, it may be that opening balances of a specific year (t) may not correspond to closing balances of the preceding year (t-1) that were published in earlier editions of this publication.

Even more care should be taken when comparing ISORA data with data gathered through pre-ISORA surveys, i.e. data included in the sixth and prior editions of the TAS. When the ISORA survey was initially created and at the request of survey participants, the four partner organisations made considerable effort to agree and document a range of words and terms used in the survey and their meaning. While this has improved data integrity and comparability between administrations, comparisons with pre-ISORA data may be limited as definitions may now exist for terms not previously defined, or in some instances, have changed.

Further, in relation to combined tax and customs administrations, it should be noted that the data in this publication refers to the tax administration activities of such administrations. The data may therefore not be directly comparable with key performance indicators published by them as these indicators may include both tax and customs related data.

Data from the Inventory of Tax Technology Initiatives

To complement the ISORA survey data, this edition of the TAS continues to draw on data from the Inventory of Tax Technology Initiatives (ITTI) which contains information on technology tools and digitalisation solutions implemented by tax administrations globally. ITTI has been put together with the assistance of the ISORA partners, the ADB, the African Tax Administration Forum, the Cercle de Reflexion et d’Echange des Dirigeants des Administrations Fiscale, the Commonwealth Association of Tax Administrators, the Pacific Islands Tax Administrators Association and the Study Group on Asia-Pacific Tax Administration and Research. (OECD et al., 2024[4])

The inventory data was collected in 2021 and 2022 through a global survey on digitalisation, and can offer further insight into the ISORA data in certain places. Therefore, where available, the TAS uses the ITTI data from 52 out of the 58 tax administrations that are covered in this report and that have completed the global survey on digitalisation.

The ITTI data is currently being updated and new data is expected to be available towards the end of 2024.

Publication structure

The tax administration series examines the fundamental elements of modern tax administration systems and uses data analysis and examples supplied by tax administrations to highlight key trends, recent innovations, and performance measures and indicators.

Structure

The main body of the publication is structured around eleven chapters: (i) an introduction followed by chapters on (ii) responsibilities and revenue collections; (iii) registration and identification; (iv) assessment; (v) services; (vi) compliance management; (vii) collection; (viii) disputes; (ix) governance; (x) budget and workforce, and a final chapter (xi) which takes a closer look at tax gap analysis.

The publication also contains two annexes:

• Annex A holds an overview of the ISORA data tables published on the RA-FIT data portal (https://data.rafit.org/).

  In previous editions, this annex replicated the ISORA data for the 58 tax administrations1 covered in the TAS. Starting with TAS 2024, Annex A contains links to online tables that hold the annual and periodic ISORA data for fiscal years 2018 to 2022.

  The online tables show the data for the more than 175 jurisdictions that have completed at least one of the last four rounds of ISORA. They are grouped as follows:

  • The Annual Tables contain:

    • Six sets of tables with indicators derived from the data submitted via the ISORA survey (tables starting with “D”). The formulae and data points used for calculating the indicators are shown below each of these tables.

    • Thirteen sets of tables containing the raw ISORA survey data. Those are the tables starting with “A”.

  • The Periodic Tables hold the data from the periodic part of the 2023 ISORA survey. Those tables start with “B” and they are grouped in seven table sets.

• Annex B has the details of the administrations that participated in this publication.

Tables and figures

The source notes below the tables and figures in the main body of the publication refer readers to the underlying ISORA data tables on the RA-FIT data portal. In some cases, they may refer to previous editions of the TAS or, where ITTI data is used, to the relevant MS Excel spreadsheets on ITTI.

The figures in the publication are also accompanied by hyperlinks (OECD StatLinks) that direct readers to corresponding MS Excel spreadsheets containing the underlying data. These links are stable and will remain unchanged over time.

Symbols and abbreviations that are used in the ISORA data tables are explained at the bottom of each table. The reader should note that where no data is shown for a specific jurisdiction in a table this is primarily due to the question not being applicable to a particular jurisdiction, or an opening question to a sub-section of the survey being answered in the negative and, therefore, the jurisdiction did not have to answer the follow-up questions.

Forum on Tax Administration

The FTA is a unique body bringing together tax commissioners and tax administration officials from over 50 OECD and non-OECD economies. The FTA is a forum through which tax administrators share knowledge, undertake research and develop new ideas to enhance tax administration around the world. Readers wishing to find out more about the FTA should go to: https://www.oecd.org/en/networks/oecd-forum-on-tax-administration.html. For more information on the OECD’s work on tax administration, please visit: https://www.oecd.org/en/topics/tax-administration.html. (Both links accessed on 10 September 2024).

Caveat

Tax administrations operate in varied environments, and the way in which they each administer their taxation system differs in respect to their policy and legislative environment and their administrative practice and culture. As such, a standard approach to tax administration may be neither practical nor desirable in a particular instance. Therefore, this report and the observations it makes need to be interpreted with this in mind. Care should be taken when considering a jurisdiction’s practices to fully appreciate the complex factors that have shaped a particular approach. Similarly, regard needs to be had to the distinct challenges and priorities each administration is managing.

References

[1] Asian Development Bank (2024), A Comparative Analysis of Tax Administration in Asia and the Pacific: Seventh Edition, Asian Development Bank, Manila, https://doi.org/10.22617/TCS240003-2.

[2] Crandall, W., E. Gavin and A. Masters (2021), ISORA 2018: Understanding Revenue Administration, International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC, https://doi.org/10.5089/9781513592930.087.

[3] Díaz de Sarralde Miguez, S. and D. Morán (2022), Innovation, Digitalization and Technology Index (INDITEC): A tool for benchmarking Tax Administrations at the international level (Based on data from ISORA 2020 Survey), Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), Panama City, http://www.ciat.org/Biblioteca/DocumentosdeTrabajo/2022/WP-02-22-Sarralde-Moran.pdf (accessed on 10 September 2024).

[4] OECD et al. (2024), Inventory of Tax Technology Initiatives, https://web-archive.oecd.org/tax/forum-on-tax-administration/tax-technology-tools-and-digital-solutions/index.htm (accessed on 10 September 2024).

Note

← 1.  For Japan, given that it publishes its currency figures in millions the currency figures included in tables have had added a suffix of “000” in order to fit the survey requirements that currency figures needed to be provided in thousands. For Switzerland, in the context of the ISORA survey the term “tax administration” refers to the Swiss Federal Tax Administration. All duties performed by the Swiss cantonal or communal tax administrations are not attributed to the Federal Tax Administration and are therefore not included. This concerns in particular PIT and CIT, where the Federal Tax Administration merely performs a supervisory function. If a service is indicated as not performed by the “tax administration”, this respective service may be rendered by the Swiss cantonal and/or communal tax administrations.