E-Tax Office as an e-communication tool of revenue authorities in Poland

Abstract

The paper presents the results of a study on the use of the online service e-Tax Office (hereinafter e-TO) recently made available by the Polish Ministry of Finance to, inter alia, implement the concept of Polish revenue authorities e-communication with taxpayers. To achieve the objectives assumed, the following research methods were used: multiple case study, literature study, analysis of relevant legal regulations, and own observation method. As a result of the study, it has been found that the e-TO, developed at high expense, did not meet the expectations in any of the cases analyzed, as communication between the Tax Office and the taxpayers in ongoing cases was still carried out in traditional ‘paper-based’ form; what is more, it was the revenue authorities themselves, who initiated paper-based communication, as opposed to contacting the taxpayer electronically. The study also resulted in an attempt to identify some of the limitations hindering the taxpayer and the tax office e-communication via e-TO.