New paradigm in tax management in the footprints of industry 4.0: tax administration 3.0

Abstract

Purpose- In the 2020’s the tax management is following the footprints of Industry 4.0, tax Office processes which were originally paper-based and partly manual have been digitalised globally, also allowing greater sharing of data within the administration and within government, the incorporation of third party data and the use of enhanced analytical tools. We proposed to start the assessment of the level of the maturity of Turkish tax office’s e- transformation project under the criteria of OECD and compare with similar countries with more advanced and established systems. Methodology- Based on the systematic of OECD Digital Transformation Project Tax Office 3.0 the study planned to cover the six building blocks (tax identity, touchpoints, data management, tax rule and applications, analytic capacity and asssesment and governance frameworks and related 13 indicative attributes and to propose an approach to apply to the Turkish tax Office. Findings- Change in management of tax offices is urgently needed and the sytem is increasingly difficult to manage since the current position is inherently unstable. Some of the 48 countries studied by the OECD Project that have a road map to digital transformations appear to have more mature (established) digitalised tax systems than Türkiye, but we observed that our system which has only started in 2010’s has progressed rapidly especially during the last five years. Turkish Ministry of Treasury and Finance, which has taken substantial steps in the tax system, is now aiming to develop the process that has started with the e-document by expanding the comprehenesiveness of the industries as well as establishing new vanguard projects as the “Turkey Digital Tax Office”. Conclusion- Our findings provide evidence that the tax office can perform better with taxpayer and accountant’s voluntary compliance to system. The study concluded that digital transformation requires integrated approaches and a new approach to co- develop the different systems of government with the tax Office. Turkish Tax Office has to improve the core capabilities necessary to facilitate future tax administration, and fit them together taking into account the mutual costs of change. It is recommended to the Turkish Ministry of Treasury and Finance in order to improve the maturity of the Turkish digital transformation, to develop new strategies to harmonise the needs and interests of government and private sector actors within an integrated digitalized system rather than expanding and diversifying the existing system. Keywords: Building blocks of digital transformation, tax offices, taxpayer compliance. JEL Codes: G28; G38, K34