Good Practices and Innovations in Public Governance 2003-2011

Good Practices and InnovATIONS in Public Governance
saving them from having to fill in the declaration themselves. The new system prevents
miscalculations or omission errors that can be subject to fines imposed by the
SII. The innovation has made it easier to collect fiscal dues, and produced savings for
the SII, which no longer needs to spend resources on data entry and needless audits,
thereby increasing its effectiveness.
The central aspect of SII’s function involves the management of large quantities of information.
In this sense, the effectiveness of different processes largely depends on the
adequate administration of the information involved in taxpayer registry, the registry
and audit of filed documentation, periodic tax filing and tax collection, etc. With this in
mind, the SII puts an emphasis on the development of adequate support services.
In April 2000, an option to pay fiscal dues via internet was introduced. One year
later, in April 2001, a fundamental landmark was achieved, when the SII website
started offering other transactions, such as the Proposed Income Tax Return forms.
Roughly 60% of all taxpayers required to file in 2002 used the newly available web
application while filing their income tax statements. This innovation made a significant
impact on the simplification of tax filing system, and significantly reduced the
associated costs.
One of the most important lessons learned through this initiative is how an already
available resource – in this case previously collected data – can be creatively used to
provide a valuable service to a significant portion of the population. Tax administrations
often have the tendency to focus more on prevention of tax evasion and development
of control systems, rather than on assisting the taxpayer. The SII initiative aims
to support compliance with the fiscal regulations by making the filing process simple
and readily accessible. By displaying the income information on file, the SII relies on
the taxpayers to declare additional sources of income, promoting mutual trust.
For more information, please visit: www.sii.cl
424