voluntary tax compliance. service & culture. cooperation between dian and skatteverket / anders...
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Voluntary tax complianceCooperation between DIAN and Skatteverket
Anders Stridh & Lennart Wittberg, 1 – 5 June 2015
Service & culture
Swedens most modern government agency
2011
The jury:
“The Swedish Tax Agency has changed from
being a feared tax collector to becoming a
well liked service organisation. The
development has been persistent and
focused. Service and treatment of taxpayers
have improved. The culture of the
organisation has changed.”
4
The purpose of communication and service
• Make it easy to comply – handle complexity
• Reduce unintentional errors
– Reduce costs for the tax administration
– Reduce compliance costs for the taxpayers
• Improve voluntary compliance
• Increase trust in the tax system
Trust and service delivery
5
“Trust comes on foot and goes away on horseback”
“…ample empirical evidence exists that satisfaction and trust are
positively correlated. …show a significant association between
satisfaction with public service delivery and trust in government…”
“…the empirical results suggest that the breaking down of trust is
easier to accomplish than the building up of trust. In other words, the
impact of a negative experience with a public agency is much more
pronounced than the effect of a positive one.”
Source: Kampen, Vad deWalle, Bouckaert, “Assessing the
relation between satisradtion with public service delivery and
trust in government”
Attitudes?
Impact on trust?
Three different attitudes
C B
Negative impact
on trust in the
Tax Administration
Positive impact
on trust in the
Tax Administration
A
Negative impact
on trust in the
Tax Administration
Walking in the customers shoes
Have you, as citizens, experienced the different attitudes in your contact with
another organization?
Give examples and reflect upon your own reaction in these situation.
Could these situations been handled in another way? If so, how?
C B A
Staff ledgers
- Restaurants and hair dressers
• Introduced 2007
• All traders must keep a ledger
– Employees in/out
• Spot checks (unannounced)
– Check if employees noted in ledger
– € 1000 fine if not
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3
• 7,5 million returns
• 70 % electronically
3rd party reporting
• Employers
• Banks
• Credit institutes
• Insurance companies
3rd party reporting
• Salaries, benefits etc.
• Pensions etc.
• Interest on savings
• Stock dividends
• Gain or Loss from sale of shares and funds
• Interest paid on loans
• Premiums on pension insurances
• Sold shares
• Sold houses
• Sold apartments in condominiums
3rd party reporting
• 60 – 80 million statements per year
• 99,3 % electronically
How people perceive on-line services
• They don’t provide confirmations and feedback
• Trust in the service will affect the willingness to use it again
• People perceive e-services as social actors and judge them in the same way as human interactions
• This means that e-services is not just about functionality and technology
• E-services should be perceived as responsive, express empathy and provide confirmation
18Source: Tan, Benbasat, Cenfetelli, “Building
Citizen Trust towards e-government Services:
Do High Quality Websites Matter?
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Demands
Needs
Questions
Forms
Applications
Security
Confirmation
Respect
Guiding principles – customer
relations
Understanding the customers situation
Solve the problem, not just answer the
question
Understandable language and manage
the further contact
We apologize if something goes wrong
Effective interactions where the user is in
control – different arenas
27
Each encounter with a taxpayer
provides an opportunity for the agency
to increase the trust of the public
Our strategy
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We try to put the taxpayer in the centre, not the
channels, but we provide different channels
Our task is not to inform the taxpayer, it is to
make the taxpayer informed
Important factors:
• Can the problem be solved at the
first contact?
• Look at the cost for solving the
problem, not just the cost for
each contact
Service offices
Cooperation between authorities
Customer orientation
Cost efficient
High skilled staff
What can a service officer do?
Give general information
Give information about cases
Help with applications
Make decisions concerning easier cases
Support with self services
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The contact
The moment of truth
Case study
Failure demand
When things
go wrong…
Statements regarding the
Tax Account
Lets stop sending them out
and save some money!
Lets see what happend
I want a copy of the statement regarding the
tax account.
Can you fax it to me?
No statement?Use e-service?
Too complicated.
I call them instead.
Number of fax
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
18000
Vec
ka n
r 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24 27 30 33 36 39 42 45 48 51
2008
2009
Result!
Increased number of phone calls
70 % increase of number of fax concerning tax account
The taxpayers were frustrated
The staff was frustrated
The e-service was not built from a user perspective
We created failure demand
We started to develop an e-mail solution
Not every day, but often she comes
to the service office. She is sick,
has social phobia, is uncertain and
very quiet. I helped her a few times
and we've got a good contact. She
can express herself when she talks,
but not in writing.
When she comes into our office,
she tries to get eye contact with
me. I know that if I nod to her she
understands that I will help her
soon. It feels good. She feels
secure in my presence. Previously,
she turned around and went home.
Now she no longer turns back in
the door. Now she thanks.
(Service officer)
Bring the voice of the taxpayer into the organisation
"After several attempts to send e-mails I now understand that the issue must be very short and very precise, otherwise the answer is
vague or you refer to a whole document. "
“I just want to say that the Tax Agency is great! You are always friendly and very helpful. I can not think of any institution, or company
that is as service-minded as you are. Thank you for that!