Coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected the lives of so many people around the world, tax administrations remain focused on key questions resulting from the impacts of the crisis. Some of these impacts are temporary. For example, we can see from the TAS data (which covers fiscal years from 2018 to 2021), that tax arrears are decreasing in many jurisdictions compared to the COVID-19 highs. This indicates the effectiveness of approaches taken by tax administrations to support citizens and businesses during this unprecedented period.

Tax Administration 2023 is the eleventh edition of the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration’s comparative information series. First published in 2004, the primary purpose of the Tax Administration Series (TAS) is to share information that will facilitate dialogue on the design and administration of tax systems.

Tax Administration 2023 is the eleventh 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 2023 edition of the OECD’s Tax Administration Series (TAS 2023) continues to highlight the scale and complexity of tax administration. Figure 0.1 shows that together the tax administrations participating in TAS 2023 collect net revenues of EUR 13.4 trillion and employ around 1.7 million staff. They deal with the tax affairs of more than 900 million personal income tax and corporate taxpayers who together contact tax administrations in excess of 450 million times via telephone, in-person, e-mail or paper and generate more than 2.3 billion contacts through online channels. That tax administrations do this on a combined operating budget amounting to around EUR 95 billion, equivalent to 0.7% of total revenues collected, reflects their efficiency and effectiveness.

This chapter provides an overview of the content of the 2023 edition of the OECD’s Tax Administration Series.

This chapter looks at the performance of tax administrations in their primary role of collecting taxes. It provides information on the aggregate net tax revenues collected as well as other key figures related to the activities of the administrations covered in this publication.

Taxpayer registration and identification is critical for the effective operation of a tax system. This chapter comments on some of the significant characteristics of those processes.

This chapter looks at the tax assessment function, which includes all activities related to processing tax returns and payments. It examines the use of e-channels for filing and paying, outlines administrations’ efforts to provide pre-filled returns, and discusses the level of on-time return filing and payment. It also provides examples of the impact of technology in assessment processes.

This chapter examines how tax administrations’ compliance goals are met by providing effective and efficient services to taxpayers, increasingly through technology.

Assessing the accuracy and completeness of taxpayer reported information is a core function of tax administrations and this chapter takes a closer look at tax administrations’ work in this area, including how they manage compliance.

This chapter comments on tax administration performance in managing the collection of outstanding taxes, and describes the features of a modern tax debt collection function. It goes on to provide examples of approaches applied by administrations to prevent debt being incurred.

Dispute prevention and resolution are essential to help preserve trust in the tax systems. This chapter explores the strategies put in place by tax administrations to resolve and prevent disputes fairly and efficiently.

This chapter looks at the resources devoted to tax administrations and provides information on their workforce. It sets out how administrations are responding to new challenges and maintain their capability while managing a workforce that in many cases is reducing in size despite added responsibilities and on average is getting older. It also explores how technology is helping tax administrations empower their workforce to deliver better solutions for taxpayers as well as provide more flexibility for the administration and its employees.

This chapter examines how tax administrations are addressing the challenges presented by digital transformation, and how technology is changing their operating models.