Accenture's fifth annual global e-government study

Innovative practices in eGovernment
The Australian Tax Office now provides a full tax
service for businesses and tax agents that allows
for paying business returns online, transferring
balances between accounts, requesting refunds,
viewing tax accounts in detail and paying obligations
(https://bp.ato.gov.au). The service is a good
example of bundling for the convenience of the
customer; it brings together information from multiple
tax accounts and across multiple tax types as
well as linking with sources of advice within the
tax office. The site can be personalized and is kept
secure through digital certificates. While not yet
available for all businesses, the site is becoming
popular among those that have used it. One large
company reported that its tax account reconciliation
process has been reduced from two weeks to
three hours because of the availability of online
information and reports.
Results such as this demonstrate why revenue
services tend to have such dramatic take-up (see
Figure 18). The payoff can be enormous for online
adopters. A number of other revenue services further
illustrate the point. In Ireland, the Revenue
Online Service, which we first described in last year’s
report, has a feature that allows users to estimate
their likely tax liabilities without having to submit
any paper forms (www.ros.ie). As an added incentive
to use its online service, Revenue Online Service also
allows customers an extra three weeks to file their
returns and pay the tax due. Providing benefits such
as these is paying off. According to the Irish Office
of the Revenue Commissioners, the total number of
online transactions more than tripled from 2002 to
2003 and the number of digital certificates issued in
2003 increased by 72 percent. Forty percent of
www.ros.ie
income tax returns were filed via the Revenue
Online Service in 2003. It also collected 17 percent
of all revenue related to business taxes in 2003.
The total number of payments made via the service
currently stands at €13.5 billion.
The French service for online value-added tax filing
and payment (http://tva.dgi.minefi.gouv.fr/index.jsp)
has also had excellent take-up. Using Télé-TVA is
mandatory for companies with more than €15 million
of revenue per year. The French Ministry of
Finance reports that €61.4 billion, or 50 percent of
VAT, has been declared and paid online by 50,000
businesses using Télé-TVA.
https://bp.ato.gov.au
http://tva.dgi.minefi.gouv.fr/index.jsp
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