About this learning event

Participants will discuss why building a culture of trust makes a meaningful difference in every modern Tax administration. The results show that there is a correlation between high-trust organization and their more productive employees who have more energy at work, collaborate better with colleagues, and stay with their employer longer, than people working at low-trust institutions.
When we are discussing building and nurturing trust in tax administrations, it is extremely important to discuss external trust, meaning how taxpayers must trust in the organization to comply voluntarily and pay the right amount of taxes at the right time. At the same time, the organization must create a culture of trust towards their employees (internal trust) so that they can deliver their work in a safe environment where rules are equal for everybody.  

What will you learn

Work will be organized in inclusive settings, where everybody will be able to contribute. As our participants will be managers, we will encourage them to share their experiences and allow everybody to learn from each other. By putting managers at the center of the learning process, we will be able to address real challenges. 

A tax administration’s internal culture must support the development of a trusting relationship between an organization and taxpayers. Building such an approach towards taxpayers can sometimes face resistance within the organization. But the trust-based approach starts with the tax administration’s employees and therefore it is essential to understand and address trust from an internal perspective as well as an external one. So, the event discussions will be focused on factors for building external and internal trust.

The following topics on external trust (towards taxpayers and businesses) will be addressed:

• A clear strategy
•  Simplicity and fairness in legislation and procedures
• Integrity
• Differential treatment by the size of businesses
• Service-oriented work
• Independent appeal procedures
• Easy and swift refund procedures
• Focus on compliance costs
• Innovative organizational practices
• New ways to build trust relationship in Covid-19 times.

The following topics on internal trust (amongst employees) will be addressed:

• Different behaviors and internal culture in tax administrations
• Respected and valued employees (equal treatment within the organization, between different genders, origins, and age is essential)
• Internal communication (should be in line with the trust-based communication strategy that is defined at the top of the TAs, has to be two-way (engaged people))
• Considering all taxpayers in a respectful way at all times
•  Importance of leadership (rewarding employees who carry out their work in a manner that strengthens trust, top management must demonstrate the requisite values supporting trust)
• Monitoring the internal culture 

 

Who should attend

Heads of departments of tax administration are kindly invited to register.

Faculty

• Steffen Normann Hansen, CEF Associate Fellow

• Ivan Simič, Director-General, Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia

• Sander de Bock, Senior Advisor, Tax and Customs Administration, the Netherlands

• Jana Repanšek, Director, Center of Excellence in Finance

Partners

This learning initiative was supported by: