Tax compliance: communication strategies to assist SMEs

The OECD Report “Communication and Engagement with SMEs - Supporting SMEs to get tax right” examines and comments on the communications tools and strategies adopted by Tax Administrations towards SMEs, to improve tax compliance and any form of interaction, including early-stage guidance, to simplify administrative burdens for enterprises: a goal we can all agree to!  In order to be effective, communication  with taxpayers should be targeted, respectful, goal driven, engaging, timely, easy to understand and dependable.

The Report, which consists of 6 chapters, also provides practical information to identify and trace some best practices (the case studies by the Swedish and the Finnish Tax Administrations are significant in this respect).

In the OECD view, effective support to SMEs (for which the tax gap - i.e., the difference between taxes legally owed and taxes collected - sometimes becomes significant; see also “Good practice principles for public communication responses to Mis-and disinformation”) requires the creation of a trust-based relationship and the implementation of effective and continuous communication, inter alia through customized (“one-to-one”) support.

The Report looks at the different communications channels (such as letters and e-mails, SMS and recorded messages, newsletters, guidance videos), making some examples for Tax Adm...