Measuring the Digital Transformation

4.5. E-citizens

Public authorities are embracing digital technologies to make processes, services and information more easily accessible and less burdensome. The share of individuals using the Internet to interact with public authorities in OECD countries has increased from 45% in 2010 to 56% in 2018. Differences between countries remain large, however, ranging from over 80% in the Nordic countries to 7% in Japan and 6% in Colombia.

Use by individuals with low or no formal education remains significantly lower than usage by other groups in all countries, at around half that of individuals with tertiary education. Cross-country variations may reflect differences in Internet usage rates, the availability of e-government services and the propensity of users to perform administrative procedures online, as well as data comparability.

One important example is the provision of digital systems for filing tax returns. All OECD and BRIICS countries offer online tax filing for at least some types of tax (personal income taxes, corporate income taxes, or value added tax filings by businesses). Significant levels of online filing for both personal and corporate income taxes are found in Brazil, Italy, Chile, the Netherlands, Portugal, Ireland, Korea, Australia and India. This trend is driven by a shift towards compulsory online filing. It should be noted, though, that the share of the businesses and especially of individuals required to file tax returns varies considerably between countries. In the case of Estonia, online filing of personal income tax returns is not mandatory but 99% of personal returns are filed via this channel.

Despite the availability of online payment facilities in many countries, data on uptake are sparse. In Norway, 100% of payments for personal and corporate income, and value added taxes are made online, as are more than 80% of payments in Italy, Ireland and New Zealand. In contrast, payment via an agency is more popular than online payment in Brazil.

In 2018, the share of individuals citing unavailability of online submission channels as a reason for not submitting forms to public authorities online is was generally low, at around 2% or less in most countries with such data. Germany is a notable outlier in this regard: over 7.2% stated that online submission was not available for forms they had needed to send. While unavailability of online submission channels appears to have increased in several countries, this is most likely to reflect survey respondents having increased awareness of unavailability, as a result of being more likely to seek to submit forms online, rather than the closure of previously existing online submission channels.

Did You Know?

All OECD and BRIICS countries offer online tax filing for at least some types of personal or business taxes.

Definitions

Individuals’ online interactions with public authorities range from the simple collection of information on government websites to interactive procedures where completed forms are sent via the Internet. They exclude interaction via e-mail (for businesses) or manually typed e-mails (for individuals). It should be noted that the need to submit forms, as well as the availability of online submission channels, varies between countries.

Public authorities refers to both public services and administration activities. These may be authorities at the local, regional or national level.

A tax return is a declaration of income, sales and other details made by or on behalf of the taxpayer. Forms are often provided by the tax authorities for this purpose. Corporate tax returns relate to business’ income, while personal tax returns relate to individual or household income.

Measurability

Tax authorities in OECD member and partner economies provide data on tax returns to the OECD according to standardised definitions. These data are a by-product of administering national tax systems. Nevertheless, a number of countries do not provide data on tax returns filed online and few provide information on online payments, limiting the ability to compare all taxes across all countries. It should be noted that tax-filing requirements and channels vary between countries. For more information, see OECD, 2017b.

Data on individuals’ interactions with public authorities are collected through surveys on ICT usage in households and by individuals. The OECD actively encourages the collection of comparable information through its “Model Survey on ICT Access and Usage by Households and Individuals” (OECD, 2015a). The European Community Survey on ICT Usage in Households and by Individuals collects additional information on whether or not respondents actually needed to submit official forms in the period. This can vary greatly depending on the administrative systems in different countries and is taken into account in the European Union Digital Economy and Society Index (European Commission, 2018). However, such detail is not available for other OECD countries and so no such adjustment is made in the indicators presented here.

Individuals who used the Internet to interact with public authorities, by educational attainment, 2018

Source: OECD, ICT Access and Usage by Households and Individuals Database, http://oe.cd/hhind, December 2018. See 1. StatLink contains more data.

1. Unless otherwise stated, data refer to the respective online activities in the last 12 months.

For Australia, data refer to the fiscal years 2010/11 and 2012/13 ending on 30 June. Data refer to “Individuals who have used the Internet for downloading official forms from government organisations’ web sites, in the last 12 months” and “Individuals who have used the Internet for completing/lodging filled in forms from government organisations’ web sites, in the last 12 months”.

For Brazil, data refer to 2016 instead of 2018.

For Colombia and Switzerland, data refer to 2017 instead of 2018.

For Canada, data refer to 2012 instead of 2018.

For Chile, data refer to 2009 and 2017.

For Israel, data refer to 2016 instead of 2018 and to individuals aged 20 and more instead of 16-74, and 20-24 instead of 16-24. Data relate to Internet use for obtaining services online from government offices, including downloading or filling in official forms in the last three months.

For New Zealand, data refer to 2012 and to individuals using the Internet for obtaining information from public authorities in the last 12 months.

For Japan, data refer to 2016 instead of 2018 and individuals aged 15-69 instead of 16-74, and 15-29 instead of 16-24, using the Internet for sending filled forms via public authority websites in the last 12 months.

For Mexico, data refer to 2016 instead of 2018. Using e-government services includes the following categories: “communicate with the government”, “consult government information”, “download government formats” and “perform government procedures”.

Statlink

Personal and corporate income tax returns filed online, 2015

Source: OECD (2017b). See 1. StatLink contains more data.

1. For Iceland, the corporate tax return data refer to 2014.

Statlink

Individuals who did not submit forms to public authorities online due to service availability, 2018

Source: OECD, ICT Access and Usage by Households and Individuals Database, http://oe.cd/hhind, December 2018. See 1.

1. For Switzerland, data refer to 2014 and 2017.

For Turkey, data refer to 2012 instead of 2011.

Statlink