Understanding Revenue Administration

This paper presents the results of the second round of the Revenue Administration Fiscal Information Tool (RA-FIT) country survey in an aggregated manner for all respondents and by income group. Notwithstanding regional biases and some data quality issues with the sample, broad insights and trends are discernible from the data, and the results form part of an evolving series that will continue to develop and grow with the International Survey On Revenue Administration (ISORA), the successor survey to RA-FIT conducted by the IMF in collaboration with the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), the Intra-European Organisation of Tax Administration (IOTA), and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). This paper expands on a previous one, which covered the first round of RA-FIT (Lemgruber and others 2015),1 and aims to allow countries to access information about key measures in revenue administration. Unlike the first paper, this one does not cover issues specific to customs administration but focuses rather on tax administration data.

During the past few years, the Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD) has developed the Revenue Administration Fiscal Information Tool (RA-FIT), a tax and customs data gathering initiative. This paper, the first of its kind internationally given the number of countries covered, analyzes the results of the first round of RA-FIT data for 85 countries. It begins the process of making summarized cross-country information available to revenue administrations, in particular in developing economies, to help them improve their performance. Topics covered include performance measurement, institutional arrangements, and core operations of tax and customs administration. RA-FIT is in its second round of data gathering, now via an online portal; these data will be analyzed and in future made available to participating countries and technical assistance partners/donors through an online dissemination platform.

The International Survey on Revenue Administration (ISORA) collects tax administration data from national or federal tax administrations. It surveys tax administration operations and other characteristics based on common questions and definitions agreed by four international organizations: the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Intra-European Organisation of Tax Administrations (IOTA), and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). These four Parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) governing the administration and management of this worldwide survey. This publication presents the results of the International Survey on Revenue Administration (ISORA) 2018, encompassing responses from 159 national or federal tax administrations spanning profile information, performance, and practices in fiscal years 2018 and 2019. For ISORA 2018, the ISORA Parties partnered with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to provide assistance to its members who were participating in the survey.

This paper presents the results of the International Survey on Revenue Administration (ISORA) deployed during 2016 and covering fiscal years 2014 and 2015. It is made possible by the participation of 135 tax administrations from around the world that provided data.

During the past few years, the Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD) has developed the Revenue Administration Fiscal Information Tool (RA-FIT), a tax and customs data gathering initiative. This paper, the first of its kind internationally given the number of countries covered, analyzes the results of the first round of RA-FIT data for 85 countries. It begins the process of making summarized cross-country information available to revenue administrations, in particular in developing economies, to help them improve their performance. Topics covered include performance measurement, institutional arrangements, and core operations of tax and customs administration. RA-FIT is in its second round of data gathering, now via an online portal; these data will be analyzed and in future made available to participating countries and technical assistance partners/donors through an online dissemination platform.

This report is the ninth edition of the OECD's Tax Administration Series. It provides internationally comparative data on aspects of tax systems and their administration in 59 advanced and emerging economies.

Tax Administration 2015 is a comprehensive survey of tax administration systems, practices and performance across 56 advanced and emerging economies (including all OECD, EU, and G20 members).

This technical note is provided as guidance to tax administrations that are considering a program to enhance the tax compliance of high wealth individuals. The note explains the rationale for a specialized compliance program for this segment of the taxpayer base and provides guidance on defining the population of wealthy individuals. Advice is also given on how to assess readiness for such a compliance program, taking into account the legal framework, the political environment, the availability of the necessary data and the administration’s capacity to implement it. The note then gives practical advice on implementing a high wealth individual compliance program, using the compliance risk management model as its foundation.

The Fund has long played a lead role in supporting developing countries’ efforts to improve their revenue mobilization. This paper draws on that experience to review issues and good practice, and to assess prospects in this key area.