Reinventing the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration: Past Restructure and Future Redesign

Abstract

The growing divergence between everyday realities and the way the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration (DTCA) operated prompted it to adjust its procedures from the mid‐1970s onwards.At first, it was thought that adjustment would be confined to the primary processes of the DTCA, its management style, and corporate culture. Gradually, however, it became apparent that this new modus operand!, based on a target‐group approach to taxpayers replacing its earlier “types of taxes”‐orientated approach, could only be realized by an overhaul of its organizational structure as a whole.Restructuring was formally rounded off on 1 June 1992. In 1993, the first year in which the DTCA operated fully in its restructured form, the benefits of the changes brought about in preceding years began to emerge.Society is constantly in motion. As society changes, the DTCA has to meet new challenges. To keep abreast of these changes, organizations need to be flexible and have the capacity for adaptation. Further adaptations on the part of the DTCA are therefore inevitable in the coming years.' The focus has been placed on working in the here‐and‐now, with the emphasis on broadening the DTCA public‐orientated approach, on adequately tackling the fraud problem, and on ensuring that legal strictures are met. The article is an attempt to explain the background and the approach taken by the DTCA, a large organization of considerable importance that has to be constantly on the move and will remain so in the years ahead.