Communication Strategies of Tax Administrations

Feb 13, 2019 , Ljubljana, Slovenia Webinar

English

The webinar was delivered as part of the Tax Policy and Administration Learning Program, whose overall objective is to contribute to strengthening of beneficiary institutions’ capacity in implementing the EU recommendations under which the revenue authorities can enhance tax compliance risk management.

How you benefited

To achieve maximum efficiency, tax administrations continuously improve and modernize their services to taxpayers. An important aspect is timely and regular communication with them. External communication aims to provide taxpayers with information related to taxes and obligatory contributions, and informing them about their rights.

During this webinar, participants were informed how to build relationships with taxpayers. We tackled the experience of tax administrations with mobile applications as a modern digital communication tool. In this respect we debated how to use mobile app to keep taxpayers better informed and how to simplify the process of fulfilling tax obligations and exercising rights for taxpayers.

In addition, we discussed which tools and skills can contribute to tax administrations’ image-building.

By the end of the webinar we had:

Reflected which strategies are effective and why
Discussed which communication channels could be used for achieving certain aims
Described which rules to use to effectively formulate your message and convey it to your target audience
How to use mobile apps to make obligations for taxpayers easier
Exchanged views about good and bad practices

What you learnt

We addressed the following areas:

Research insights about taxpayers behaviour
Strategies for making communication with taxpayers engaging
Principles for making messages clear, concise, and effective
Communication tools
Targeting your audience

Who attended the webinar

The webinar engaged officials from public relations departments of tax administrations and ministries of finance.

Faculty

Barbara Škrinjar, Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia

Barbara has started her career as journalist and editor at Slovenian newspaper Finance daily. Later she has switched into public relation field where she has more than 12 years of experience as a spokesperson and public relation specialist. She has worked for several organizations (Slovenian electricity market organizer, Borzen, the Faculty of Administration of the University of Ljubljana, the Commission for Prevention corruption). Currently she holds the position of public relation specialist at Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia. She is an active member of the European Anti-Fraud Communicators Network (OLAF) and the European Communication Network for Taxation and Customs (European Communication Network for Taxation and Customs).

Bas Volleberg, Coordinating communication advisor, Tax and Customs Administration, Ministry of Finance of the Netherlands

Bas studied Communication science at the University of Nijmegen. He worked 10 years in the private sector, IT and Business consulting. In 2000 he started working for the Netherlands Tax and Custom Administration (NTCA); first as Business consultant, later Communication and Service advisor at the Benefit Department. From 2016 he has been working as Communication advisor at the Communication Department of the NTCA.