Activity Planning. Planning in the Tax Agency

Transcription

1 Activity Planning Planning in the Tax Agency The Tax Agency shows a sharp interest in planning and can be considered a vanguard organization in the planning area. This interest is reflected in its organic structure to the extent that since 1997 it has had a department, the Organization, Planning and Institutional Relations Department, whose objectives include fostering and coordinating planning tasks. In addition, the Financial and Tax Auditing Department, the Customs and Excise Department, the Tax Management Department, the Collection Department and the Information Technology Department also have Planning Subdirectorates. The Territorial Services also have their own planning bodies. With the fundamental support of this organic structure, the Tax Agency has assembled itself an armoury of planning tools and instruments to back up its organization activities. Use of these planning tools and instruments has been heavily fostered in recent years. The Agency s general planning instruments include the following: 1. Strategic planning as contained in the Tax Agency 2005 plan which includes the strategic guidelines for the Tax Agency for the period The Plan, which is subject to periodic tracking sessions and reports, ensures that the work done to fight fraud hews to an absolutely consistent line over a multi-year horizon. 2. The basic planning instrument of the Tax Agency is the Annual Objectives Plan, which sums up the main variables that represent the two fronts where the Agency works: citizen service and improved Agency/citizen relations, and taxpayer compliance supervision. The Tax Agency has had Objectives Plans ever since the very first year it went into operation, 1992, and it has advanced steadily in its objectives ever since. 3. On the supervision front, which could also be termed the fight against fraud, the General Tax Control Plan maps out all the exact steps, or tasks, needed in order to reach the Agency s pre-set objectives. The Plan s general guidelines its rough explanatory brushstrokes are published each year in the official gazette Spain, the Boletín Oficial del Estado, in the form of a Resolution by the Agency s Director- General. The adjective general has been tagged to this Plan since 1999, because the Plan works to ensure that the supervision activities carried out by the different departments bearing responsibility in the fight against fraud (Financial and Tax Auditing, Customs and Excise, Tax Management and Collection) are fully integrated with one another. The General Tax Control Plan is the heir to the partial supervision plans for these areas. 4. In the year 2000, the Tax Agency began drafting a Special Quality Programme with a view toward obtaining the highest possible level of quality. The Special Programme for the year 2003, which maintains the same basic structure as in the past, contains three basic fronts of actions: It calls for quality activities measured over a multi-year time span (primarily focusing on the quality of tax assessments), quality commitments made by the departments and central services in their managerial capacity; and quality activities to be boosted in the Agency s provincial offices and local offices. 15

2 Activity Planning Tax Agency 2005 Special Quality Programme General Tax Control Plan Annual Objectives Plan In addition to these instruments, which have to do with the work done jointly by the entire organization, each department and service at the Tax Agency has its own plans, smoothly coordinated with those of the rest. Accounts of all plans are discussed in other sections of this Annual Report. For example, there are the Training and Investment Plans put together by the Human Resources and Economic Administration Department, and the plans to improve and boost Internet use prepared by the working group set up for that very purpose. Aside from the proper organic structure and qualified instruments, planning tasks must also be constantly and permanently monitored. To do so, the Tax Agency, in addition to a planning-oriented organic structure and the proper instruments, has a powerful computer system that is vital for quantifying results as they come in, plus set schedules of periodic supervisory meetings with the organization s central and territorial heads. Last of all, as the final component in the set of means, measures and orientations needed to ensure that its planning system runs smoothly, the Tax Agency adjusts one portion of its personnel s payment to reflect how much each person has contributed to achieving its objectives, thus guaranteeing that every day s work is completely oriented towards meeting the goals the Agency has set for itself. The Tax Agency is a pioneer here too, internationally as well as amongst its fellow public administrations in Spain. Strategic Planning and Activity Programming Here are some of the main characteristics of the Tax Agency s general planning instruments for the year Strategic Planning Tax Agency 2005 Plan This Plan, as a continuation of the Executive Tax Control Programme, sets out 16

3 the strategic working lines of the Tax Agency for the period The new plan is intended to guarantee the consistency of the decisions taken by the organization over the medium to long term. Unlike the Executive Tax Control Plan, this is a comprehensive plan in that its strategic lines of action refer not only to tax and customs control and auditing but also to citizen information and assistance as well as human resources and economic administration. The Tax Agency 2005 Plan begins with an examination of its institutional framework and structure, going on to analyse the social, economic and technological environment in which the Agency operates. It goes on to establish a series of principles which express the Tax Agency s commitment to facilitating the voluntary compliance by citizens of their tax obligations by rendering quality services. In short, a commitment to bring the Tax Agency closer to citizens and to simplify as much as possible their compliance with tax obligations. These principles are then explained in a series of specific commitments designed to improve the information and assistance provided to citizens in aspects such as convenience, technological innovation, flexibility, legal guarantees, and specific assistance for certain groups. Picking up where the previous Executive Tax Control Programme left off, it goes on to establish the basic lines of action in the area of customs and tax control in an attempt to include all of the aspects which influence or determine these types of fraud. These lines include focusing control actions on investigation, the use of advanced technological systems, organizational changes and the necessary collaboration with other national and international institutions. Finally, it includes a section on the line of action in the areas of human resources and economic administration. To ensure compliance and ongoing adaptation to a changing environment, and to enable the introduction of the changes necessary to keep the guidelines fully effective, thus maximising its efficacy, The Department of Organization, Planning and Institutional Relations is responsible for preparing an annual tracking and evaluation report on the Plan. The Tax Agency 2005 Plan is the principal strategic planning instrument and a good medium- and long-term addition to the Annual Objectives Plans and Plans on Supervision. It furnishes the Tax Agency s model of supervision with what it needs in order to make real strides in effectiveness and quality. 2. Annual Objectives Plan The Annual Objectives Plan is the basic numerical statement of the results the Tax Agency proposes to reach during the year, classified by areas of activity. Coordinating the preparation of the Objectives Plan is the job of the Organization, Planning and Institutional Relations Department, and more specifically of the Subdirectorate General of Planning and Programming. All the Agency s departments and services participate in the Plan s preparation, and the Territorial Services put forward their opinions as well. The Objectives Plan for 2003 was forged primarily to accomplish the following: - To improve tax management by doing things which would have the direct, immediate result of making it easier for citizens to pay their taxes voluntarily, such as making available more and better services using state-of-the-art technologies. - To monitor for and fight tax fraud, in order to ensure that the tax and customs system is applied effectively and that everyone contributes fairly to the public pocketbook. 17

4 The Plan is clustered into three groups of objectives and compliance indicators: 1. General Objectives: On the one hand, these refer to the global tax revenues managed by the Tax Agency as the organization s ultimate purpose, and on the other to the interest in fostering the collaboration of the Tax Agency with other public administrations. The liquid nature of the revenues responds to a need to standardise the magnitudes included in the Tax Agency s Objectives Plan and those set out in the General State Budgets always expressed in liquid terms. 2. Tax Management Improvement Objectives: The tasks in this group of objectives seek to foster voluntary compliance with tax obligations by expanding the services available to citizens, helping citizens comply with their obligations, setting up new services for filing tax returns on line, taking preventive measures as the most effective way of avoiding fraud, reducing the time it takes to process the kinds of administrative proceedings that have the greatest social impact, and generally simplifying the relations between citizens and the Tax Agency. 3. Tax Compliance Supervision Objectives: These are the activities the various departments undertake to check for irregularities in taxpayer compliance and to investigate potentially fraudulent conduct. They also include gathering the results of the Tax Agency s tax collection management activities. The results reached in compliance with the objectives in the 2003 Plan may be seen in TABLE No 5. TABLE 5 TABLE OF TAX AGENCY OBJECTIVES FOR 2003 COMPARISON OF FORECASTS AND FIGURES ACTUALLY REACHED OBJECTIVES AND INDICATORS Forecast for 2003 Achieved in 2003 % Complian ce GENERAL OBJECTIVES Tax Agency collection management , ,80 102,23% Strengthened cooperation with other public administrations Information furnished to avoid issuing certificates ,97% Cooperation activities ,26% TAX MANAGEMENT IMPROVEMENT OBJECTIVES Citizen assistance Trips rendered unnecessary ,36% Computer programs used (%): - Personal income tax 89,00% 92,84% 104,31% - Value added tax 70,00% 76,43% 109,19% - Partial payments in modules scheme 90,00% 90,35% 100,39% Corporate income tax 90,00% 94,82% 105,36% INFORMA program ,55% Citizens attended by appointment ,41% On-line tax management User s certificates issued (not counting revoked certificates) On-line tax returns filed ,77% 18

5 - In the Tax Management Area: - Income tax declarations ,76% - SME tax returns ,46% - Informative tax returns ,67% Corporate income tax ,96% - In the Customs and Excise Area (%): - Customs declarations of transit cases 85,00% 94,79% 111,52% - INTRASTAT declarations 50,00% 69,74% 139,48% - Excise tax self-assessments 45,00% 61,82% 137,38% Other communications and requests: - Internet payments ,51% - Applications by working mothers for pre-payment of ,05% maternity deductions -Appeals and other tax-related requests filed via ,33% INTERNET. - Extension requests filed via INTERNET ,44% -Tax refunds requested by taxpayers no obliged to file ,50% Certificates issued on line to citizens in under 48 hours ,55% Speedier tax management Average waiting time for personal income tax refunds (in ,00% days) Average waiting time for exporters VAT refunds (in days) ,50% Average waiting time for customs dispatch (in hours) 1,50 1,15 130,43% Average waiting time for appeals and claims to be settled ,83% (in days) Average processing time for prepayment of monthly 90,00% 95,59% 106,21% maternity deduction (% of requests settled compared to those filed the previous month). Preventive activities Activities to ensure quality of third-person data (%) 20% 42,67% 213,35% Census management activities concluded ,61% Special preventive activities ,57% Web page hits for identification ,24% TAX COMPLIANCE SUPERVISION OBJECTIVES Modernisation of tax supervision Strengthening of the verification assistance methods (MAC y MACA) actions using these systems-. Automation of collection procedures (RENO). Implementa tion Introduced 100% Results of supervision activity Management and Auditing , ,28 147,35% Debt recovery 2.528, ,44 130,83% (Unless stated otherwise, these figures are given in millions of euros) 3. Special Quality Programme Pursuit of top-notch quality is one of the fundamental principles that steer the organization s activity and one of the reasons why the Tax Agency implements a Special Quality Programme each year. 19

6 The Objectives Plan alone cannot accommodate each and every quality variable the organization has to deal with. The Special Quality Programme is envisaged as a complement to the Objectives Plan and the right instrument for dealing with hard-to-forecast added-quality activities requiring high technical expertise and hinging on variables that sometimes lie outside the Agency s power to control. It also measures the efficacy and efficiency of the Objectives Plan. The various components of the Special Quality Programme do not ever constitute compliance indicators, because that is not the point of the Programme. So, unlike the Objectives Plan, the Special Quality Programme sets no quantitative targets for its components to reach. The activities in the Special Quality Programme have been classified into three different sections or layers, the same as in years before: - Quality activities tracked every few years. - Quality activities stemming from management and efficacy commitments made by the different departments and services. - Quality activities designed for the special offices to boost and measured annually. - Quality actions by the Special Offices and National Offices during the period in which, because of their nature, are subject to annual tracking. These actions are reflected on the Quality Table. The information this third activity section provides is of terrific help in the management work the executives at the Tax Agency s peripheral services do, and it makes it possible to arrive at a better evaluation of the tasks they are responsible for. 4. General Tax Control Plan The General Tax Control Plan is the basic yearly planning instrument in which, following the defined strategic lines, the supervisory activities that have to be implemented in order to reach the Tax Agency s anticipated goals are specified in both qualitative and quantitative terms. These activities are structured into supervision subsystems or programmes according to their nature and the risk areas they are supposed to address. The Plan is built in three major sections: general guidelines; Partial Tax Supervision Plans (for the Financial and Tax Auditing, Tax Management, Customs and Excise and Collection areas); and Plan Integration Standards, which state the rules or procedures for the activities that have to be executed in coordination amongst the different areas. The 2003 Plan includes a new section dedicated to coordinating planning of the supervision of ceded taxes, which is reflected in the collaboration between the Tax Agency and with autonomous tax administrations in the planning process. The Resolution of the Directorate-General of the Agency of 22 January 3 announced the General Guidelines of the General Tax Control Plan, which state the main explanatory lines of the Plan, thereby complying with the terms established in article 26 of Act 1/1998 of 26 February on Taxpayer Rights and Guarantees, which calls for the criteria behind tax supervision activities each year to be publicly divulged. The General Guidelines express the principal explanatory lines of the Plan and describe the top priority tax risk areas. In 2003 the Organization, Planning and Institutional Relations Department tracked performance of the activities called for under the General Plan on Supervision for 2003 and coordinated preparations for the 2004 Plan. A) Tracking of the performance of activities called for in the 2003 General Tax Control Plan. Activities to track the performance of the General Plan on Supervision are coordinated by the Executive Committee of 20

7 the Coordination Commission of the General Plan on Supervision, which meets every four months to analyse the progress made thus far on compliance with the Plan, any incidents occurring during its application, any proposals submitted in response to new questions as they arise and any measures that need to be taken to improve inter-area coordination of activities. The most relevant data on the application of the coordination procedures between different areas during 2003 are as follows: 1. In the procedure for transferring supervisory proceedings from the Tax Management Department to the Financial and Tax Auditing Department, the most significant results are these, grouped by tax types: - A full 16,139 value added tax refund proceedings were transferred, worth a total of 5,140.5 million euros in requested refunds. The auditing authorities reviewed 9,680 of these proceedings, worth 4,196.4 million euros; that is over 81% of the total sum requested. - 6,433 value added tax compensation proceedings were transferred, worth 1,041.8 million euros in total requested refunds. Auditors scrutinized 1,600 proceedings worth 439 million euros. - In personal income tax and corporate income tax tax returns, 11,468 cases were transferred and 3,684 cases were reviewed by auditors. 2. Coordination of activities between collection and auditing authorities has the following results to show: - Some taxpayers can be identified as posing a collection risk. A total of 895 taxpayers were subjected to specific tracking, 770 by the Financial Auditing area (5% of all taxpayers who were involved in auditing activities) and 125 by the Customs and Excise area. - In application of article of the State Tax Act, 43 precautionary measures were taken, worth a total of 4.05 million euros. In activities aimed at improving collection in the wake of auditing reports, in 2003 the triptych brochure giving information related with collection management was revised and updated. A new edition of 30,000 copies was printed up and distributed to the special offices to be handed out to actuaries at the Auditing Department, who in turn passed the brochures on to taxpayers who had been involved in auditing activities and wanted a copy of the brochure. 3. Transmission of information to the auditing area for selection: - Control in the Collection Area files were put together holding relevant information gathered in the course of collection management activities, 184 of which (54%) were selected for audits. - Control in the Collection Area files were put together holding relevant information gathered in the course of collection management activities, which resulted in 373 files (91%) being selected for further auditing actions. - In the Customs and Excise Area: - 49 files were put together holding relevant information gathered in the course of customs and excise management activities, which resulted in 27 cases (55%) being selected for further auditing action. 4. In 2003, diverse measures were introduced into the General Control Plan to foster coordination between the Tax Management and Collection areas. Notable here was the fact that 1,413 cases containing tax collection information were forwarded to Collections. 5. With regard to the collaborative effects of Customs Auditors the operations arm of the Department of Customs and Excise Taxes on investigative missions, in 2003 the scope of the collaboration was 21

8 extended to include the Tax Management Area. The total number of collaborative efforts during the fiscal year was 186, of which 49 were requested by the Auditing area, 85 by the Collections Area and 52 by the Tax Management Area. 6. Lastly, there were 293 activities run in coordination between bodies in the Auditing area and those in the Customs and Excise area. B) Preparation of the 2004 General Tax Control Plan A number of meetings of the Executive Committee of the Coordination Commission of the General Plan on Supervision have been held (under the prompting, organization and coordination of the Organization, Planning and Institutional Relations Department) to prepare proposals for the 2004 General Plan on Supervision. The Organization, Planning and Institutional Relations Department has also encouraged and coordinated initiatives submitted by the Agency s different special offices concerning the activities that ought to be addressed in the General Plan on Supervision, particularly those that affect inter-area integration standards, the preparation of each area s Partial Plans and the Integration Standards for the different areas Partial Plans. 22