Tax Administration 2025

5. Services

Abstract

This chapter examines how tax administrations’ compliance goals are met by providing effective and efficient services to taxpayers, increasingly through technology. This is helping increase voluntary compliance amongst taxpayers by making it easier to understand tax obligations, report taxable income and make payments.

Introduction

While taxpayer compliance can be heavily affected by elements outside of the control of the tax administration, for example the state of the economy, changes in the reporting environment (such as a shift from salaried work to self-employment) and the perceived fairness of tax policy among other things, a core part of supporting taxpayer compliance is the provision of a wide range of effective and easy to use services for taxpayers. Providing the right services, to the satisfaction of taxpayers and other stakeholders, will increase the level of participation, taxpayer trust, and confidence in the tax system as a whole.

This chapter comments on areas that tax administrations can consider when supporting taxpayer compliance through their service offerings as well as providing relevant country examples. These areas are:

• Understanding and meeting taxpayer preferences;

• Supporting self-service;

• Providing educational and support initiatives; and

• Providing collaborative services.

Understanding and meeting taxpayer preferences

Taxpayer contact volumes are very large scale. Administrations reported more than 3 billion incoming contacts via online taxpayer accounts, and there are still more than 300 million incoming telephone contacts (see Tables A.96 and A.97 in the ISORA database). However, unlike many other government services, at the individual level taxpayers will often have very limited periodic contact with tax administrations and for some this may be in relatively stressful situations involving significant sums of money or with risks of penalties in the background. For many taxpayers, expectations have also changed as regards the availability of services and response times, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic and in light of the ongoing digital transformation of the economy.

Taxpayer satisfaction surveys and other feedback mechanisms can provide valuable information to tax administrations regarding services' expectations as well as insights into service perception. In this respect, Table 5.1. shows that 91% of administrations measure, for example, taxpayer experiences in using online services. Surveys are used most often, followed by other online feedback channels.

Table 5.1. Measuring taxpayer experience in using online services, 2024

Percent of administrations that have the respective process in place

Administration measures taxpayer experience in using online services	If yes, approach used…
Survey (online or paper)	Online feedback channels (other than survey)	User testing	Web analytics	Interview (phone or in-person)	Other
90.7	89.8	71.4	55.1	53.1	49.0	8.2

Source: OECD (2025), Tax Administration Digitalisation and Digital Transformation Initiatives, Table 3.8., https://doi.org/10.1787/c076d776-en.

Box 5.1. describes a few approaches used by tax administrations to understand and meet taxpayer preferences. Additional information on the use of taxpayer satisfaction surveys can be found in Chapter 5 of the 2024 edition of this series (OECD, 2024[1]).

Box 5.1. Examples – Understanding and meeting taxpayer preferences

Canada – Use of generative artificial intelligence for web content optimisation

In order to improve the CRA website experience, a feedback tool was added at the bottom of each of its web pages asking users if they found what they were looking for. If a user answers “no,” they can provide an anonymised comment. The CRA uses this information to identify and prioritise areas for improvement.

The CRA began work on a project to improve the instructions on how to register for, or sign-in to, its online accounts. To understand what the main issues were with these user tasks, it looked at the comments it had received via the feedback tool over a one-year period. In that time, users had provided over 90 000 comments about their experience. A Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tool was piloted to help summarise and categorise the feedback by key themes.

As a result, ten key areas for improvement were identified and became the focus of a content optimisation project, which resulted in a 158% increase in user success for registration and sign-in tasks, with the use of the GenAI tool allowing the CRA to efficiently support its optimisation efforts.

China (People’s Republic of) – Intelligent and manual interactive services model between taxpayers and tax authorities

As the STA has been steadily advancing towards digital transformation in recent years, it has developed an “Intelligent + Manual” interactive services model to bridge the gap between taxpayers and the tax administration. Currently, 97% of tax-related matters and 99% of tax filings can be processed online. This shift has driven a growing demand among taxpayers for online consultation and guidance services. To meet this need, the STA has developed a more interactive service system and embedded it into the electronic tax office platform, providing taxpayers with a seamless integration of intelligent and manual support.

This system has four key features:

• AI-powered guidance: This focuses on common tax matters, providing 24/7 intelligent support to taxpayers through AI technology.

• Real-time assistance: To support taxpayers with their tax-related business, the system offers real-time consultation via screen sharing, audio-visual interaction, and collaboration with the relevant local tax authorities. This integrates service resources to assist taxpayers in completing their transactions smoothly.

• On-demand problem-solving: This provides scenario-based, on-demand services at any time throughout the transaction process. In 2024, nearly 60 million interactive services were delivered, significantly enhancing online service experience.

• Remote virtual counter: A remote virtual counter has been established, enabling taxpayers to handle cross-regional tax matters nationwide without altering data permissions. This innovation further streamlines the process and improves accessibility.

Italy – Digital assistance to taxpayers

The Italian Revenue Agency (IRA) has made improvements to the digital services it offers to taxpayers. In line with the trend of tax administrations making their services more sophisticated and user friendly, the IRA have introduced a new appointment booking system which is accessible via the website, mobile application or a free phoneline. This was introduced to improve the relationship between the taxpayer and tax administration, and simultaneously allow taxpayers to receive assistance more easily through their preferred channel, with reduced waiting times and without the need to travel to an office.

Using a Customer Relationship Management technological solution, the IRA have used video calls to enable taxpayers to interact directly with tax officials and create a ‘virtual tax counter’ environment. Features include being able to exchange files and screen share.

Launched at the end of 2023, the virtual counter has been extended with approximately 5 000 officials servicing it, with over 130 000 interactions recorded by the end of 2024. It has been particularly useful for serving taxpayers with disabilities and helping resolve questions related to specific tax benefits.

Sources: Canada (2025), China (People’s Republic of) (2025) and Italy (2025).

An important aspect of meeting taxpayer preferences is getting the mix of channels right. Table 5.2. highlights the shift in channel usage over the 10-year period from 2014 to 2023 and illustrates the move to digital that occurred over the past years, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The decline of in-person visits to the tax office is particularly notable.

Digital assistance, for example through chatbots, has become an important channel in many jurisdictions, but service contacts through online taxpayer accounts dominate the overall picture. The data confirms a structural shift away from channels that occur during tax office working hours to channels that can be used 24/7.

Table 5.2. Service demand by channel, 2014-23

Channel type	Number of incoming service contacts
	2014	2023	Difference in percent
Online via taxpayer account (31 jurisdictions)	1 076 833 409 (2018)	3 091 848 263	+187.1
Telephone call (37 jurisdictions)	292 973 732	288 899 301	-1.4
In-person (25 jurisdictions)	129 237 960	56 976 308	-55.9
Mail / post (14 jurisdictions)	15 132 056	19 121 148	+26.4
E-mail (22 jurisdictions)	11 794 253	30 604 471	+159.5
Digital assistance (34 jurisdictions)	11 404 668 (2018)	89 173 086	+681.9

Note: The table shows the number of incoming service contacts for those jurisdictions that were able to provide the information for the years 2014 and 2023. The number of jurisdictions for which data was available is shown in parentheses. For “Online via taxpayer account” and “Digital assistance”, the table compares information for the years 2018 and 2023, as this data was not captured via ISORA 2016.

Sources: ADB, CIAT, IOTA, IMF, OECD, International Survey on Revenue Administration, Tables A.96 Incoming service contacts: Track keeping and number of contacts by channel - Online and digital assistance, A.97 Incoming service contacts: Number of contacts by channel - Telephone call and e-mail, and A.98 Incoming service contacts: Number of contacts by channel - Mail / post and in-person, http://isoradata.org (accessed on 1 October 2025), and Tax Administration 2017: Comparative Information on OECD and Other Advanced and Emerging Economies, Tables A.116. to A.119., https://doi.org/10.1787/tax_admin-2017-en.

Supporting self-service

The self-service offering from tax administrations continues to grow, with an expanding range of services being offered. Common examples of this include the ability to register, file and pay on-line, along with a range of interactive tools. This is leading to efficiency gains in tax administrations, as well as being able to provide a more 24/7-style service to taxpayers.

Using ITTI data (OECD et al., 2025[2]), Table 5.3. gives an overview of some of the online services that administrations are offering for the main three tax types. It illustrates that most tax administrations have moved many of the interactions between them and taxpayers online.

Table 5.3. Online services offered by tax administrations by tax type, 2024

Percent of administrations that have the respective process in place

Interaction type	Personal income tax	Corporate income tax	Value added tax
Registering for tax	88.5	87.0	92.0
Filing tax returns	100.0	98.1	100.0
Making tax payments	90.4	92.6	92.0
Requesting extensions of deadlines (filing and payment)	65.4	61.1	60.0
Asking for tax payment arrangements	75.0	72.2	76.0
Asking confidential enquiries in a secure environment	75.0	74.1	74.0
Filing tax related objections	88.5	77.8	84.0
Dealing with correspondence	90.4	88.9	90.0
Uploading data into the tax administration’s systems	86.5	87.0	86.0

Source: OECD (2025), Tax Administration Digitalisation and Digital Transformation Initiatives, Table 3.1., https://doi.org/10.1787/c076d776-en.

To increase efficiency and reduce administrative costs, many tax administrations are also increasingly automating their online services. As Table 5.4. demonstrates, there are a range of online services for which tax administrations are now fully automating responses (when pre-determined criteria are met).

Table 5.4. Online services with automated responses by tax type, 2024

Percentage of administrations that provide automated responses (when pre-determined criteria are met) without human intervention

Interaction type	Personal income tax	Corporate income tax	Value added tax
Registering for tax: Registrant receives automated response with the tax registration number	69.2	70.4	56.0
Filing tax returns: Returns are automatically processed and assessments sent to taxpayers	76.9	64.8	74.0
Making payments: Payments are instantaneously processed and reflected in balances visible to the taxpayer	46.2	51.9	52.0
Requesting extensions of deadlines: Requesting person receives automated response whether request has been accepted or rejected	26.9	22.2	22.0
Asking for tax payment arrangements: Requesting person receives automated response whether request has been accepted or rejected	48.1	44.4	42.0

Source: OECD (2025), Tax Administration Digitalisation and Digital Transformation Initiatives, Table 3.3., https://doi.org/10.1787/c076d776-en.

Box 5.2. Examples – Enhancing self-service through online channels

Chile – Enabling taxpayers to self-serve online

Chile has improved its taxpayer’s ability to self-serve, through updates to the taxpayer portal on the Internal Revenue Service (Servicio de Impuestos Internos, SII) website. The "My Requests" option has been enabled in the taxpayer's personal site (Mi SII) located on the SII website, and includes three sections:

• Tax Key: This section is divided into two components. The first part provides a historical record of the main key tax activities. The second component displays the usage history of the tax key, both for accessing the SII website and for authentication on other public institution platforms.

• Current Requests: Taxpayers can track the status of requests submitted through the SII website, such as modifications, administrative requests, inquiries, complaints, and business closures.

• Finalised or Closed Requests: Once a request from the Current Requests section is resolved or closed, it is registered in this section for future reference.

Poland – Multichannel communication centre

The National Revenue Administration (NRA) has deployed a system, the Multichannel Communication Centre (MCC), which services taxpayers on remote channels. This enables taxpayers to get easier and faster access to tax information and makes it easier for them to comply with their obligations.

The MCC enables taxpayers to obtain general tax and customs information via telephone, email and chat channels. The telephone channel has a voicebot which redirects the taxpayer to the appropriate topic queue and enables them to speak to specialists who can answer their queries. There is also an application that enables the officials advising taxpayers to see relevant data on the taxpayer to personalise the assistance they offer and deliver a better service. A chatbot has been introduced that is available 24/7, and can answer general queries.

United Kingdom – Digitise agent authorisations

In April 2024, HMRC made enhancements to its Agent Services Account, fulfilling a key policy requirement to strengthen its security and foundations. Agents are now able to use the digital service to view/ update their contact and anti-money laundering supervision details, giving HMRC enhanced capabilities to run system background checks to counter fraud.

In eight weeks, the project delivered enhancements that enabled:

• Agents to more efficiently self-serve by having the ability to update their contact and anti-money laundering details.

• Automated digital checks of agents on sign-in to the Agent Services Account.

• The reduction of data protection risks to HMRC.

• Efficiency reductions in print and postal costs.

These enhancements meant that by January 2025, a total of 5 355 agents had updated their details, 1 843 had updated their anti-money laundering supervision status and 377 were identified for further compliance checks.

The rate at which agents are using the enhancements continues to rapidly increase – positively impacting HMRC’s ability to regulate and upskill the paid tax agent market. This in turn aligns with the UK Government’s key priorities for HMRC to modernise, close the tax gap and improve performance.

Sources: Chile (2025), Poland (2025) and the United Kingdom (2025).

Virtual assistants

The previous editions of this series highlighted how a growing number of administrations are using virtual or digital assistants to help respond to taxpayer enquiries and support self-service. This is confirmed through the data in Table 5.2. on service demand by channel, but also in Table 5.5. which shows that the growth has been significant between 2018 and 2023 (plus 36 percentage points) and that these services are now commonly used by many administrations.

Table 5.5. Use of virtual assistants, artificial intelligence and application programming interfaces, 2018-23

Percentage of administrations that use this technology

Status of implementation and use	Artificial intelligence (AI), including machine learning					Virtual assistants (e.g. chatbots)			Application programming interfaces (APIs)
	2016	2018	2023	Difference in p.p.		2018	2023	Diff. in p.p.	2018	2023	Diff. in p.p.
				2016-23	2018-23
Technology is implemented and used	8.6	29.8	69.0	+60.4	+39.2	34.5	70.7	+36.2	79.0	98.3	+19.3
Technology is in the implementation phase for future use	13.8	15.8	24.1	+10.3	+8.3	13.8	17.2	+3.4	7.0	1.7	-5.3
Technology is not used, incl. situations where the implementation has not started	77.6	54.4	6.9	-70.7	-47.5	51.7	12.1	-39.6	14.0	0.0	-14.0

Sources: ADB, CIAT, IOTA, IMF, OECD, International Survey on Revenue Administration, Tables A.108 Innovative technologies: Implementation and usage - Blockchain, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing, A.109 Innovative technologies: Implementation and usage - Data science, robotic process automation, and APIs, and A.110 Innovative technologies: Implementation and usage - Whole-of-government identification, digital authentication technology, and virtual assistants, http://isoradata.org (accessed on 1 October 2025), and OECD (2019), Tax Administration 2019: Comparative Information on OECD and Other Advanced and Emerging Economies, Table A.27, https://doi.org/10.1787/74d162b6-en.

Artificial intelligence

Using data from the 2019 edition of this series, a surge in the use of AI is visible over the few years. While only 9% of administrations used AI in 2016, this has increased to 69% with another 24% implementing this for future use (see Table 5.5.). Part of this development is the use of AI for service provision, including self-service. For example, AI is used to power virtual assistants to cope with more complex questions being asked by taxpayers and/or for providing more personalised answers.

AI is also used during other interactions with taxpayers, for example, to provide guidance as well as to assist tax officials. Just over a fifth of administrations use AI during such interactions, as can be seen in Table 5.6. This includes the use of AI to assist taxpayers during the filing of tax returns, to suggest potential responses to tax officials while dealing with incoming correspondence, or to assist tax officials during live chats with taxpayers. Box 5.3. contains examples on how AI is used as part of service provision.

Table 5.6. Use of AI during interactions with taxpayers (other than virtual assistants), 2024

Percent of administrations that have the respective process in place

AI is used during interactions with taxpayers (other than virtual assistants)	If yes, type of interaction …
To suggest potential responses for incoming correspondence	To assist tax officials during live chats with taxpayers	To assist taxpayers during the filing of returns	Other interactions
22.2	25.0	25.0	33.3	50.0

Source: OECD (2025), Tax Administration Digitalisation and Digital Transformation Initiatives, Table 3.5., https://doi.org/10.1787/c076d776-en.

All of this is part of a much wider trend on the use of AI in tax administration which can be seen throughout this report, for example, in relation to compliance risk management (see Chapter 6).

Box 5.3. Examples – Artificial intelligence

Austria - Bot Federation: A networked artificial intelligence strategy for public administration

The Austrian Tax Administration has introduced a new concept, the Bot Federation, for networking specialised chatbots (bots) used by public administration. Its goal is to provide citizens with a more efficient and user-friendly digital interaction through the intelligent collaboration of bots by using AI. The bots – including Fred (for tax-related inquiries), Mona (for general information on various government services), and ID-Austria (for digital identity verification) – share their knowledge and always provide the best possible answer, regardless of which bot is contacted.

This minimises the administrative burden, as each administrative unit is responsible only for its own content but gets the benefit of centrally organised knowledge exchange. Citizens benefit from fast and precise responses, reducing the need for phone calls, in-person visits, and paper-based processes.

The project went live in August 2023. Initial results have shown increased efficiency, significant relief for customer service teams, and high user acceptance.

In the long term, the Bot Federation serves as a scalable solution that can be extended to other areas of public administration. It sets new standards for digitalisation in public services by leveraging AI to make citizen-centred services more efficient and accessible.

Canada – Service feedback business intelligence initiative

The CRA has embarked on a research partnership with Western University, known as the Service Feedback Business Intelligence Initiative (SFBII). The CRA receives thousands of individual service feedback submissions annually. Currently, each service submission, be it complaint, compliment, or suggestion, is reviewed and manually categorised. One challenge is that manually categorising the feedback does not allow for easy trend detection or consistency in categorisation.

The SFBII experiment has created a multi-lingual Large Language Model (LLM) capable of analysing vast amounts of service feedback information and efficiently identifying service quality elements. As a first of its kind model within the CRA, this initiative introduced a more sophisticated approach to trend analysis, which provides the CRA with insights into potential service improvements. By harnessing the power of the multi-lingual LLM-based model, it saves a lot of time compared to if the analysis was carried out manually. However, it still allows for human intervention and oversight, as is necessary with any artificial intelligence tool.

A decision was made to include intersectional variables to perform gender-based analysis plus the trend and cluster analysis. Upon the experiment’s successful completion, the model provided the CRA with an enhanced ability to identify and triage specific trends within the data, enabling deeper understanding of how trends may affect intersectional groups. This advancement positions the CRA to better serve its taxpayers, underscoring this initiative’s potential to reshape how feedback may be analysed and utilised.

Ireland – Automating the categorisation of taxpayer queries

Revenue have improved the efficiency of their online portal, MyEnquiries, by utilising AI and Natural Language Processing (NLP) technology. Previously, this service required the taxpayer to categorise their queries via dropdown menus. Picking the correct categories was often difficult and confusing for taxpayers, resulting in most queries being submitted either as ‘general’ or to be incorrectly categorised.

To address this business and IT teams worked collaboratively to identify a range of customer enquiries, and then used these to train AI/NLP technology models to automate the categorisation task. The result is that the categorisation process is now automated when taxpayers submit queries, and the enquiry is routed to the appropriate subject matter experts for action. An AI model has been established which has significantly simplified the online interface.

The benefits of this project include:

• An uplift was achieved that boosted accuracy levels from under 65% when taxpayers were self-categorising, to 97% accuracy when done by AI.

• On average, autoclassification has reduced the overall routing time to the correct subject matter experts by over 24 hours.

• Simplifying the customer facing interface by removing layers of complicated drop-down menus such that a customer could now submit an enquiry to Revenue in ‘free text’ format without having to consider Tax categories and sub-categories.

• Encourages taxpayers to use digital first channels when contacting Revenue by making the submission of an enquiry much simpler.

• Drives more accurate classification of enquiries, gives more business insight into customer requirements, and allows for a more targeted response.

Korea – Artificial intelligence tax helpline

In 2024, the Korean NTS launched the AI Tax Helpline, which provides consultation services by phone using AI voice recognition. The NTS trained this AI system with more than 2 million records of taxpayer inquiries, along with a vast amount of tax provisions, tax rulings, and judicial precedents.

When a taxpayer receives a filing notice and seeks assistance, they can utilise the AI Tax Help Line. Upon calling, a virtual assistant answers the call and verifies the caller's identity using the phone number registered in the database. The system then provides tailored basic information specific to the taxpayer.

During the call, additional resources such as Frequently Asked Questions, video links, and step-by-step instructions related to the taxpayer’s inquiries are sent via text message in real time. Once the call is completed, the taxpayer can click the provided link to directly access the filing section and proceed with reporting their tax returns.

Thanks to the AI Tax Help Line, 98 percent of incoming calls were successfully answered in 2024, marking a significant improvement from 26 percent in 2023. The NTS answered a total of 1.42 million calls, which is 2.5 times more than the previous year. Among these, approximately 74 percent were managed by the voice-based virtual assistant.

While there may still be some gaps in terms of expertise, the implementation of this AI system is equivalent to hiring 1 000 additional employees, demonstrating its substantial impact on efficiency and service capacity.

Singapore – Artificial intelligence assistant for handling taxpayer queries

The Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore (IRAS) has developed IRASearch, an in-house tool powered by LLMs and GenAI to serve as an AI assistant for officers when handling taxpayers’ inquiries. IRASearch exemplifies IRAS' commitment to continuous innovation, capturing various machine learning and AI functionalities to enhance operational efficiency and decision-making. It leverages LLMs to refine queries and enhance search, and uses GenAI to customise responses.

One of IRASearch’s core strengths lies in its ability to generate tailored responses using GenAI. With both built-in and customisable prompts available, the GenAI response feature empowers IRAS officers to compose replies to taxpayers’ queries that take into account the tax issues raised as well as taxpayers’ circumstances. Additionally, officers can also request for GenAI to simplify complex tax concepts to help taxpayers better understand their obligations, such as reporting taxable income requirements. This enhanced communication between IRAS and its taxpayers not only elevates the quality of service being offered, but also fosters trust and reduces barriers to voluntary compliance. Ultimately, it improves taxpayers' overall satisfaction with the services rendered, facilitating more positive interactions between taxpayers and the tax administration.

In conclusion, IRASearch streamlines the information gathering process, enabling officers to retrieve accurate information and generate responses swiftly. By reducing the time taken to collate information and enhancing consistency, it boosts efficiency and service quality. This innovative tool demonstrates how AI transforms service delivery, driving operational excellence.

Sweden – Transforming operations with artificial intelligence assistants

The STA is developing three AI driven tools to enhance operational efficiency and service delivery. These AI assistants are designed to automate tasks, accelerate processes, and improve decision-making across key areas:

• AI code assistant: This tool is being developed to assist STA’s developers and analysts by automating repetitive tasks such as generating code and debugging. By speeding up development cycles and reducing human error, it will enable staff to focus on more complex problem-solving. This will enhance code quality and accelerate the delivery of systems and services.

• AI for tax crime investigations: This AI tool is under development to assist investigators in identifying similar cases, transcribing speech, and translating documents. By streamlining data retrieval and analysis, it will improve decision-making speed and accuracy. It will also support international collaboration, breaking down language barriers and enhancing cross-border cooperation.

• AI-powered email response automation: This system is being developed to assist STA officers in automatically generating replies to tax-related emails, as well as inquiries regarding the real estate and population register. By automating responses, it will allow staff to handle a higher volume of inquiries without sacrificing quality. The goal is to fully automate responses, ensuring consistent, professional communication while significantly reducing time spent drafting replies. Over time, user feedback will be integrated to improve response accuracy and relevance.

Together, these AI assistants will transform STA's operations. By automating routine tasks, accelerating processes, and improving decision-making, they will significantly increase efficiency, scalability, and the agency’s ability to deliver timely, accurate, and high-quality services to the public.

Sources: Austria (2025), Canada (2025), Ireland (2025), Korea (2025), Singapore (2025) and Sweden (2025).

Educational and support initiatives

Education of taxpayers has two aspects, one around taxpayers’ understanding of their own obligations and their abilities to meet them and the other awareness-raising around the role of tax in society. Both are important factors in supporting voluntary compliance. Influencing beliefs, attitudes and norms is generally considered an effective and efficient way to influence compliance behaviour over the long term. The 2024 edition of this series noted that the majority of tax administrations carry out educational initiatives and around half provide free tax services for new businesses and lower income individuals (OECD, 2024[1]). In practice, this often includes the provision of online material and e-learning, information campaigns (including through social media), as well as conferences and community outreach.

In addition, tax administrations are also creating support programmes, such as advice or temporary loosening of tax obligations that can help taxpayers in difficult circumstances, such as a result of natural disasters or personal hardship. This can help prevent future compliance issues as well as additional stress for taxpayers in difficult circumstances. It can prevent reputational issues for the tax administration, and have wider benefits such as help maintain trust in the system, improving perceptions of the tax administration as well as assisting wider economic resilience.

Box 5.4. includes examples of educational and support initiatives undertaken by tax administrations. Additional information and links to other relevant OECD reports can be found in the 2024 edition (OECD, 2024[1]).

Box 5.4. Examples – Educational and support initiatives

Canada – Geospatial analysis to support disaster relief measures for taxpayers

The CRA has recognised that natural disasters - such as floods, wildfires, and hurricanes - can make it hard for individuals to meet their tax obligations, and so uses advanced tools and real-time disaster data to map regions impacted by these events.

By linking geographic data, taxpayer location and real-time disaster information, the CRA can pinpoint within 24 hours impacted postal codes, allowing the quick development of robust, evidence-based recommendations for taxpayer relief measures. This approach has not only improved CRA’s disaster preparedness and resiliency, but also ensured taxpayer support can be expedited, enhancing service delivery during crises.

Denmark – Digital Personal Tax Guide

The Digital Personal Tax Guide is a pilot project which aims to create a digital solution through using data analysis to detect life events relevant to tax assessment, which then enables personal and automated guidance.

An example of this is the impact of transport deductions triggered by a job change or lost job. The purpose of providing guidance proactively is to strengthen the user experience and provide the most effective guidance possible to foster higher compliance and reduce the number of enquiries around peak periods. This is achieved by:

• Making taxpayers aware of the possible consequences that detected changes in their circumstances have on their tax assessment during the income year, instead of waiting until the annual statement period at the end.

• Increasing awareness of the DTA’s digital self-service solution and thus empowering citizens to be self-serving.

The pilot project's technical solution consists of a simple search which prompts a guidance package, distributed via the official e-government mailing system. If this method proves successful, then it could be developed into an automated and integrated Information Technology-solution.

The solution itself searches for data in the DTA’s data warehouse based on established criteria. The guidance package is tailored based on which changes in the taxpayer’s life situation have been detected and which of these can be updated by the taxpayer using the DTA’s digital self-service solution.

Italy – Online chat channel and social media engagement

Over the past year, IRA’s communication strategy on social media has been enriched by its online chat channel. Launched in late 2023, this official channel has reached over 770 000 subscribers.

Through its presence on social media, the IRA has helped taxpayers to use digital services and increased its credibility and visibility, creating a more open dialogue with taxpayers.

In line with the digital communication strategy (which aims to disseminate simple and clear information to help taxpayers fulfil their tax obligations), the IRA has used the online chat channel to develop integrated communication actions on different topics. These topics vary from relaunching the annual information campaign on pre-filled tax returns, promoting mandatory electronic invoicing and online services.

A notable feature of the IRA's chat channel is that it provides daily real-time updates on the tax news of the day, as well as in-depth opportunities on national and territorial initiatives of widespread interest.

Through social media, the IRA promotes clear and timely information on tax matters, with columns dedicated to a particular issue (keywords, surveys and polls, infographics, breaking news, press releases) which aim to engage and retain users who follow the channel and consolidate social engagement.

The results are extremely positive. Usually, polls see the participation of between 5 - 8 000 users, while individual posts receive hundreds of reactions.

Japan – Tax education for young people

The National Tax Agency Japan (NTA) is working to develop an environment that enables its citizens to be educated about the significance of taxation and the role it plays in the smooth running of society.

Specifically, the Council for Promoting Tax Education was formed between related government ministries (comprising the NTA, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology), which meets to discuss effective support measures on tax education.

The NTA also sends its staff to teach in tax education classes at the request of schools, organises tax essay contests, and conducts various tax-related events in cooperation with the Certified Public Tax Accountants’ Associations and other relevant private organisations. In 2023, 9 720 officials were sent to conduct tax education classes. As for the essay contest, 174 008 senior high school students and 445 945 junior high school students entered.

Moreover, with consideration of the national curriculum standard and the digitalisation of schools, the NTA is striving to develop courses and teaching materials that deliver a better learning experience by accurately determining educators’ needs and collaborating with related agencies.

Content is uploaded to the “Tax Learning Corner” of the NTA website so that students can learn about taxes by themselves. Also, the NTA provides education programmes using a dedicated tax education facility located in the Tokyo Ueno Tax Office.

Türkiye – Taxpayers starting a new business

The Turkish Revenue Administration has implemented a proactive communication policy aimed at taxpayers starting new businesses. The primary aim is to enhance these taxpayers’ awareness of their legal obligations and rights, and to ease the compliance processes. In this context, a comprehensive brochure was prepared, detailing the obligations and rights that self-employed and commercial income taxpayers are required to fulfil under the legislation. This brochure has been made accessible both in print and digitally, providing taxpayers with swift and easy access to essential information.

To further enhance the compliance processes of taxpayers starting new business, a concise video explaining their rights and obligations was created. This video was published on the Turkish Revenue Administration's social media accounts to reach a wide audience.

Moreover, informative SMS messages are sent each month following the registration of new taxpayers. In 2024, a total of 415 626 SMS messages were sent to new taxpayers. These SMS reminders ensure that taxpayers access accurate information about legal processes right from the beginning. Additionally, the initiatives are not limited to providing information, but they also include a comprehensive monitoring strategy to analyse and track the compliance behaviours of taxpayers starting new business.

The aim of this work is to reduce the barriers encountered by taxpayers in fulfilling their obligations and to build trust in the tax system. A comparative analysis of taxpayer compliance levels in 2025 and the compliance levels of those who started their businesses in 2025 is also planned. This approach is expected to positively influence compliance behaviours by raising awareness about fulfilling future obligations.

Sources: Canada (2025), Denmark (2025), Italy (2025), Japan (2025) and Türkiye (2025).

Collaborative services

As the digital services developed by tax administrations grow, more and more administrations recognise that these services bring opportunities (i) to join-up with other government agencies to provide a whole of government service experience; and (ii) to work with third-party developers to connect with the systems of taxpayers.

Joined-up government services

Tax administrations are reporting joining-up with other government agencies to enhance the overall service experience across government, including through “collect once, use many times” approaches. Tax administrations have a special place within government in this respect since they (i) will often hold up-to-date verified information on identity, (ii) will be involved in both receiving and making payments, and (iii) will receive and send information to third parties (such as financial institutions and employers.)

Table 5.7. shows two examples of joined-up government services. In many jurisdictions registering for tax or making tax payments are now part of wider government processes, thus reducing and simplifying administrative burdens. Also, a number of country examples of such joined-up services have been included in previous editions in this series, for example, in Box 1.7 of the 2019 edition (OECD, 2019[3]). In addition, the examples in Box 5.5. illustrate how government agencies joining-up can reduce burdens for taxpayers.

Table 5.7. Tax related services as part of a wider government service approach by tax type, 2024

Percent of jurisdictions where the respective tax process is part of a wider government service approach

Interaction type	Personal income tax	Corporate income tax	Value added tax
Registration for tax is part of a wider government online registration approach	50.0	66.7	48.0
Making tax payments is part of a wider government online payment portal	40.4	40.7	42.0

Source: OECD (2025), Tax Administration Digitalisation and Digital Transformation Initiatives, Table 3.2., https://doi.org/10.1787/c076d776-en.

Box 5.5. Examples – Reducing burdens by joining-up

Hungary – Electronic payroll system

The National Tax and Customs Administration (NTCA) is going to introduce a new electronic payroll system (ePayroll) to reduce the administrative burden for employers related to managing employment data.

This new system is expected to have many benefits. It will enable employers to send data to the tax administration and other relevant government parties in one go, and in a standardised format, and will enable the provision of data based on employment events. This links to the OECD’s Tax Administration 3.0 vision (OECD, 2020[4]) where the taxpayer is at the centre of the ecosystem, and fits better with the payroll processes of employers, saving time and money. Additionally, the data is expected to be validated in real-time, using information from government databases which will reduce the number of retrospective corrections.

ePayroll will be implemented as a secure, access-controlled blockchain system with built in confidentiality and privacy features. The platform is designed to support cross government collaboration, enabling the tax administration to collaborate with other government departments, for example the treasury, health ministry and statistical office. The project will also successfully reconcile blockchain technology and data protection requirements, which will ensure that data is processed in line with privacy and legal requirements.

For further information, please see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBTDOfA7ZqA (accessed on 1 October 2025).

Singapore – Single source of truth for self-employed persons’ income

Since 2024, IRAS has been the Single Source of Truth (SSOT) within the Singapore government in respect to Self-Employed Persons’ (SEPs) income. Previously, SEPs had to declare their income to different government agencies for various purposes. For example, besides declaring their income to IRAS for tax assessment purposes, SEPs applying for government benefits to top-up their income under the Workfare Income Supplement had to also declare their income to another government agency in Singapore - the Central Provident Fund Board (CPFB). This process resulted in more work for Singapore’s SEPs.

In collaboration with the CPFB, IRAS established itself as the SSOT for SEP income and streamlined the declaration process, enabling all SEPs to electronically-file with IRAS. With SEPs’ consent, this creates an accurate and single view of SEPs, with their income data then being shared with different agencies for relevant policy analysis and administration of whole-of-government schemes. This change has benefitted approximately 300 000 SEPs.

Additionally, IRAS proactively collects SEPs' income data from third-party intermediaries such as commission paying agencies and private hire car operators, to pre-fill income information in their tax returns.

This citizen-centric approach has simplified the income declaration process for SEPs. For IRAS and the wider Singapore government, this initiative has resulted in enhanced efficiency and better resource utilisation. This approach provides the government with a comprehensive overview of all SEPs' income and status, enabling swifter and more effective implementation of assistance schemes.

Sources: Hungary (2025) and Singapore (2025).

Working with third-party developers

Embedding services and processes in the natural systems used by taxpayers in their daily lives and businesses will help to improve tax compliance, and also reduce administrative burdens and free up time that owners can use to grow their businesses. Most of those natural systems are prepared by third-party developers and many administrations are driving collaborations with those developers to open up new services.

The connection of the tax administration's system to the natural systems of taxpayers is typically done through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). APIs are allowing connectivity between systems without providing direct access, and are the critical enablers of many innovative services. It is against this background that around 85% of tax administrations are now creating APIs and three-quarters of them are making those APIs available to third party developers. Further, as part of the process of developing APIs, 55% of tax administrations are engaging in API co-creation with third parties. (See Table 5.8.)

Table 5.8. Development of Application Programming Interfaces, 2024

Percent of administrations that have the respective process in place

Administration develops Application Programming Interfaces	If yes, …
Administration makes a library of Application Programming Interfaces publicly available for third party use	Administration engages in co-creation of Application Programming Interfaces with third parties
83.3	75.6	55.6

Source: OECD (2025), Tax Administration Digitalisation and Digital Transformation Initiatives, Table 3.9., https://doi.org/10.1787/c076d776-en.

The OECD report Unlocking the digital economy – a guide to unlocking application programming interfaces in government (OECD, 2019[5]) provides an overview of the practices, techniques and standards used to deliver contemporary and effective digital services for taxpayers through APIs. As the services delivered become more sophisticated, and play a greater role in delivering a quality service to taxpayers, tax administrations are having to invest more in the management and oversight of their APIs. Box 5.6. contains examples of some of the latest developments in administration regarding APIs.

Box 5.6. Examples – APIs

Canada – Work in progress service

The Work in Progress (WIP) service was developed to improve the user experience for individual and business clients using the CRA secure portals. Currently, users must complete and submit forms within the portals in a single sitting. If the user’s session times out before they submit the form, they must start again from the beginning on their next attempt. This user experience has the potential to deter users from digital solutions.

To resolve this problem, the CRA created a service that stores a user’s “work in progress” on a form and retrieves it when the user is ready to complete the form. The service is a cloud-based, stand-alone database that stores form data. An API retrieves that data and displays it back to the user for completion. The service also permits email notifications to be sent to users to remind them to complete their submission.

The service was launched as a single programme in October 2024, with plans to expand it to additional programmes.

Hungary – General machine-to-machine receipt submission service

The NTCA has introduced a Machine-to-Machine (M2M) receipt submission service, a milestone in transforming from a forms-based, complex data service into an event and data driven, real-time interactive service. The M2M service allows software providers to develop software that connects to the NTCA's processing systems via machine interfaces (application programming interfaces). These are then able to automatically transmit data to the NTCA without human input.

The use of the solution requires a prior two-factor online registration, whereby the end-user (the taxpayer) is identified in a single government customer identification system. The end-users can then submit electronic forms to the tax administration using client software pre-registered with the NTCA.

To ensure that the service adheres to security requirements, there is an activation process after registration to gain access, which includes a complex multi-factor authentication process. Together, these ensure a level of identity protection for users. With activated access, the client application can submit electronic forms (in XML format) to the NTCA. After a preliminary check for any errors, the NTCA forwards the forms to its internal processing systems.

In the first three months following the launch of the service, 34 client programmes were registered and more than 10 000 electronic forms were submitted by around 500 individual and organisational end-users.

For further information, please see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NM7f723g--o (accessed on 1 October 2025).

Norway – Structure and data governance in data sharing

The Norwegian Tax Administration (NTA) shares data with public and private entities to simplify, improve, and streamline daily operations for both businesses and individuals. It is a key part of the administration’s societal mission. In practice, the data sharing is accomplished through API’s offering data from a range of source systems. In terms of volume, the NTA receives over 300 million API requests per month from approximately 4 000 consumers.

In order to streamline processes, ensure correct and compliant data processing and an efficient administration of the data sharing services, the NTA adheres to the European Interoperability Framework and the NTA’s own Policy for Data Sharing, in order to keep the scope of data sharing manageable and standardised.

For organisations with the same data needs in the same sector, the NTA encourages and establishes group collaborations with organisations representing the sectors. The NTA currently has sector collaborations with organisations in finance, municipalities, healthcare, and energy.

Examples of data sharing include:

• Streamlined kindergarten fee applications: An organisation representing local and regional governments in Norway has worked with the NTA to automate the process, significantly reducing manual effort for parents and municipalities.

• Efficient loan applications: When customers grant consent, banks can directly access tax data from the NTA, speeding up loan processing. This system is estimated to save the society up to NOK 1.3 billion annually, ensuring privacy and reducing paperwork.

Sources: Canada (2025), Hungary (2025) and Norway (2025).

In addition to embedding services, a number of administrations are also creating natural systems that will assist taxpayers to fulfil their tax obligations, either directly or in collaboration with third parties. Tax administrations can do this by themselves or in partnership with third parties. The most common software solutions created by tax administrations either by themselves or in commercial partnerships with third parties relate to return-filing processes, followed by solutions for electronic invoicing purposes. See Table 3.11. in the 2025 OECD report Tax Administration Digitalisation and Digital Transformation Initiatives (OECD, 2025[6]).

Inclusive administration

Tax administrations need to provide comprehensive services that ensure equitable access for all citizens, including those with disabilities, those without internet access, or those who do not speak any of the official languages of the jurisdiction. Providing accessible formats, multilingual support, and offline service options facilitates bridging gaps in communication and access, promoting a more inclusive society. These measures can assist enhancing the trust in the system and voluntary compliance.

In addition, tax administrations are also considering how to assist taxpayers in difficult personal circumstances, for example by developing new services or by providing tailored support. This is set out in Box 5.7.

Box 5.7. Examples – Inclusion

Canada – Research on the participation of Canada’s hard-to-reach populations in the tax and benefits systems

The CRA, in collaboration with Employment and Social Development Canada and Statistics Canada, conducted a series of studies on populations that may be hard-to-reach or vulnerable, to improve their access to benefits.

This research was in response to a 2022 government audit which found that hard-to-reach and vulnerable populations may be missing out on certain benefits to which they are entitled to. This is because Canada’s tax system does not require people below a certain income threshold to file a tax return, and certain benefits are only granted to people who file an annual tax return.

The studies linked census data and administrative tax data to identify the characteristics and estimate the number of hard-to-reach individuals who had not filed taxes, but might be eligible for benefits. The results for six population segments - Indigenous Peoples, youth, seniors, newcomers to Canada, housing insecure individuals, and persons who reported having a disability - were analysed using the gender-based analysis plus criteria.

These results have helped enable the CRA to adjust its strategies and programme activities to increase outreach in specific areas and improve services to hard-to-reach and vulnerable populations. The studies have had a direct impact by informing government activities aimed at increasing their access to benefits and improving equity from a gender and diversity perspective.

Israel – Ensuring fair tax payments

Since Israel does not impose a general reporting obligation, the ITA has initiated measures to help taxpayers maximise their tax benefits and ensure they do not overpay taxes. This has enabled the ITA to directly reach eligible individuals and assist them in exercising their rights.

The target populations for this initiative include:

• Parents of children with disabilities.

• Residents with a qualifying medical disability, including special consideration for Holocaust survivors.

• Individuals who have overpaid taxes but have not submitted a tax refund request.

To achieve this goal, the ITA has taken the following actions:

• Personalised letters were sent to thousands of eligible individuals who had overpaid taxes. These provided the relevant forms and an explanation of the refund process.

• Personalised letters were sent to eligible individuals who had not yet claimed their tax benefits, detailing how to exercise their rights.

• Outreach efforts were conducted via SMS and phone calls to assist taxpayers in claiming their benefits.

• In certain cases, the ITA proactively corrected tax refund requests and annual reports where tax benefits had not been applied.

These efforts were carried out in collaboration with other government ministries, including the Ministry of Education, National Insurance Institute and Holocaust Survivor’s Rights Authority.

Approximately 800 000 eligible individuals received letters. From those, 10% submitted a refund request, resulting in direct refunds totalling approximately NIS 340 million.

Sources: Canada (2025) and Israel (2025).

References

[6] OECD (2025), Tax Administration Digitalisation and Digital Transformation Initiatives, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/c076d776-en.

[1] OECD (2024), Tax Administration 2024: Comparative Information on OECD and other Advanced and Emerging Economies, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/2d5fba9c-en.

[4] OECD (2020), Tax Administration 3.0: The Digital Transformation of Tax Administration, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/ca274cc5-en.

[3] OECD (2019), Tax Administration 2019: Comparative Information on OECD and other Advanced and Emerging Economies, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/74d162b6-en.

[5] OECD (2019), Unlocking the Digital Economy - A Guide to Implementing Application Programming Interfaces in Government, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/56697aa7-en.

[7] OECD (2017), Tax Administration 2017: Comparative Information on OECD and Other Advanced and Emerging Economies, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/tax_admin-2017-en.

[2] OECD et al. (2025), Inventory of Tax Technology Initiatives, http://www.oecd.org/content/oecd/en/data/datasets/inventory-of-tax-technology-initiatives.html (accessed on 1 October 2025).