After a two-week strike, the tax office workers arrived”for a fair deal with the government over and above the original salary increase offerThis happened at the beginning of May in Canada.

Our ANAF staff obviously also expect a fair deal, perhaps without the need for a two-week strike. But we, taxpayers, should expect the same fair result. why Because, simply put, we need tax inspectors to do their job good and fair work. And this “goal” cannot be achieved with demoralized, unmotivated people.

The Canadian government might have been forced to raise the salary even further if it had not previously demonstrated an understanding of the needs of this special job of what was once called a “tax collector.” The OECD’s Tax Administration Report 2022 cites Canada as a best practice example of how it has implemented processes to automate repetitive administrative work, freeing up staff time to focus on value-added activities, on truly high-priority objectives.

Where is the added value of an official visible? There is a certain voluntariness of compliance by the taxpayer. How to help a taxpayer come to pay taxes himself, on time and correctly is a new functional art. And art is created with empathy: “a study by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) found that negative interactions with customers (taxpayers) can have a significant impact on voluntary compliance. By using empathy for how Agency services are designed, delivered and supported, it reduces the negative emotions customers may experience when interacting with the CRA“.

Everyone agrees that this art of empathy is achieved not only with nice words, but with sound investments. Even the US Republicans – to stay in the same place – have not gone so far as to completely cancel the additional funds that the IRS is going to receive in the next decade to modernize the services [1]. Of course, a significant part will still go to “proper fortification”appropriate, in the original) of law enforcement agencies” – especially in the areas of complex taxation, where due to budget cuts in recent years there has been a decrease in the number of inspections. But money is needed first of all for the interaction that I mentioned above, for the development of services “that taxpayers want and need” – to have an information system that is easy to understand and use, which, for example, will offer options for pre-filling tax forms , centralization of huge databases available to the administration. At the same time, the taxpayer should also have a well-trained official who will answer their calls and give clarifications, well trained to respect the rights of the taxpayer (especially in the resolution of tax disputes). [2]

As they say, technology without humans is (yet) impossible. In the 2021 IRS Taxpayer Experience Survey, 60% of respondents experienced a problem when they needed help. But on the other hand, at least 63 percent of IRS employees are eligible for retirement between 2023 and 2028.”The IRS makes significant efforts to hire and retain sufficient personnel with the necessary skills and knowledge. The explanation lies in the salary limitations that the Agency can offer, so there is a need to request exemptions through the budget to offer higher salaries where there is a shortage of staff with critical skills“.

With that in mind, let’s go home and let’s taxpayers understand with empathy that there is a lot of pressure on these people from the Fisc who we see protesting on the streets in the heat. The pressure to attract more money to the public purse (including from own salaries), the pressure to cope with a series of legislative changes, both domestic and international, in an economic context full of uncertainty.

But, remembering the same image, I go back and this time tell the Fisc people that even their protests should be taken with the same logic of sympathy.

I also tried to show in the case of the teachers’ strike [3], a strike that stops only at wages is futile. Tell the employer government that your job is to make sure you have “a taxpayer who respects their tax obligations, and an effective way of achieving this is to promote voluntary compliance and to identify and manage the risks associated with non-compliance“. [4] That for this you need clean and decent premises, you need to get out from under the counters and from under a pile of cases, go out to meet your taxpayer; you need to be able to explain the law, abandoning outdated procedures that not only do not allow you to see the taxpayer as a partner, but, even worse, support suspicion, fuel chaos and aggressive approaches divorced from reality and economic sense. Tell him you need technology, risk analysis systems drawn from vast domestic and international databases, behavioral analysis techniques, advanced training and payroll systems to help you retain and attract professionals. Tell him that without them you will not be able to bring more money to the budget, even if new taxes are invented, you will not be able to fight real evasion, but you will also not be able to provide reasonable costs of compliance with the law expected by the honest taxpayer. Tell him that it’s not just about marking some milestones in the PNRR, it’s about specific investments that need to happen today, not tomorrow, not in the near future.

Finally, protest knowing that you are not only the actors, but also the writers of the system! [5] Protest with sympathy for taxpayers big and small, those who don’t have the same means to voice their rebellion.

I will end with a table that may be worth posting on signs under the slogan REFORM! REFORMS! INVESTMENT and ACTION for REFORMS!

Salary expenses as a percentage of operating expenses of tax administrations [6]

Source – OECD Comparative Tax Administration Report 2022 Data for 2020 Romania ranks first out of 58 jurisdictions analysed, Denmark ranks last.

PS I would like to highlight the news, which I think is one of the best I have heard recently – the announcement by the University of Bucharest that seven world sports champions and Olympians have joined the faculties of the University of Bucharest in the July 2023 session . Without further ado, I thank young people like David Popovici, Lucia Risnoveanu, Mihnea Andreescu, Mircea Muntianu… for their extraordinary efforts, from which we all benefit in one way or another.

But at the same time, the university deserves to be appreciated, because it shows that it has a development policy – in addition to classical scholarships for performance, this is “Each Olympiad will have a mentor at the level of the faculty where he will study, chosen from among the professors and teachers of the faculty, who will guide him during the three years of study.”. This reminds me of HMRC’s policy of assigning a compliance manager to every large taxpayer to understand the client’s business, help them and remain a good client (Customer Compliance Manageron the model Customer relationship management). This is an approach that is found in more and more modern administrations – by learning to work hard, you practically learn how to protect the entire ecosystem (what is the economy, what is the institution, etc.). – Read the entire article and comment on contributors.ro