Nikolay Getov, Director of Strategic Planning and Change Management, and Magdalena Mitova, Chief Expert at the Human Resources Development Department, from the Bulgarian National Revenue Agency (NRA) share their thoughts on their experience in attending the Strengthening Management Skills in Tax Administration Reform Processes course.

Тhe “Strengthening Management Skills in Tax Administration Reform Processes“ workshop combines the traditional strategic approach with the latest behavioral techniques affecting taxpayer’s behavior. Once again it became clear that the tax administration and taxpayers could attain mutual trust via easy communication, respecting the virtues of both parties. First, the tax administration should establish contributing conditions as much as possible, and then taxpayers should file their taxes and pay on time and in full the right amount of money. If taxpayers have the necessary information and support to voluntarily comply with the law at a reasonable cost for them, they will do so rather than avoid it. The main focus of the NRA lies in developing knowledge about taxpayers’ behavior and compliance psychology. The present workshop contributes to further developing our organizational capacity, including in the area of segmentation and profiling of taxpayers for compliance risk management purposes. We would like to thank the lecturers and the CEF for the excellent organization of the workshop and for the positive atmosphere during the whole event.

The course was delivered on November 10–12, 2015 as part of the Supporting Capacity Development of Tax Administrations in South East Europe project. On the occasion tax officials from across SEE countries gathered and jointly with CEF Associate Fellow Norman Gillanders discussed the importance of sound corporate governance as this is crucial for an effective and efficient application of modern ways of working within the tax authorities.