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Tax & Revenue Management
– Reducing the Tax Gap
Introduction & Context


                  Tax agencies are agents of change          Consider these facts:
                  within the public sector, responding       • Taxes (income, sales, property, fuel,
                  to citizen-focused government                estate, etc.) are typically the single
                  pressures that stem from a                   highest component of government
                  combination of constituent-led               revenues.
                  demand, compliance pressures and
                                                             • Revenue-generating, citizen-facing
                  political mandates. Throughout the
                                                               agencies like tax agencies all have
                  world, governments are being
                                                               technology modernization strategies.
                  challenged by citizens to deliver
                  better, less costly and more customer-     • Between 2000 and 2004 the UK's
                  focused services. This requires              ‘Corporation Tax Gap’ (the difference
                  different channels for delivering            between the expected rates of tax
                  services to the citizen, fundamental         that UK companies should pay and
                  changes to government culture and            what they actually paid) saw the top
                  employee behavior and a new                  50 UK companies paying around 30
                  consideration of the channels through        billion euros less tax on their profits
                  which services are delivered.                than expected rates would suggest
                                                               appropriate.
                  Within this changing environment,          • The tax gap according to USA’s
                  tax agencies, as the ‘de facto’ banker       Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is
                  of government, have a central role to        estimated to be over 250bn euros.
                  play not just in collecting the taxes to
                  fund public services but also as a key     This is serious money. So finding
                  citizen-facing organization.               solutions that enhance citizen services
                                                             while improving the collection of
                                                             taxes has high urgency amongst tax
                                                             agencies.

                                                             In this paper we will explore the
                                                             general trends and put forward the
                                                             shared view of Capgemini and SAP on
                                                             a solution to improve tax and revenue
                                                             management and help tax agencies
                                                             increase revenues and taxpayer
                                                             compliance. We aim to help you to
                                                             ‘mind the gap’ whether you’re looking
                                                             at it from the perspective of a solid
                                                             business case or as it fits in with
                                                             societal developments and the new
                                                             positioning of the tax department.




2
Public Sector       the way we do it




What are the compelling pressures tax agencies face today?


Governments – particularly those in          high percentage of government service        changing the way in which frontline
Europe and North America – are faced         expenditures, so there is an                 and back office services are delivered.
with a dilemma. Better services to the       opportunity to seize this and use it to a
citizen cost money, but the citizen is       government’s advantage by:                   New technologies have also
no longer willing to pay more taxes to                                                    fundamentally changed the way in
pay for these services. In addition, as      • investing in new, less expensive ways      which services, whether they are in
economies globalize, businesses are            to deliver frontline services to the       the private or public sector, are
taking corporate tax rates into                citizen,                                   delivered. This has seen the channels
consideration in their investment            • looking at how they can create more        of delivery moving away from
appraisals – in effect, governments            effective back office, public              traditional face-to-face contact to call
have to use corporate tax rates as a           administrative functions for less cost,    centers and the Internet. Technology
means to compete with one another                                                         has created flexibility in how and
                                             • looking to where others can provide
and so make their country an                                                              where services are delivered while
                                               services at a lower cost,
attractive investment proposition. So                                                     offering new ways to take out cost.
the revenue streams open to                  • embracing flexible and adaptive
government have become tighter – tax           technology.                                Four Challenges Facing Tax
rates cannot be increased, the                                                            Agencies
taxpaying population is decreasing           Most countries are investing in              Tax agencies cannot escape these
and within the EU the opportunities          modernization programs, for example          public sector challenges. A simple
to borrow are now more restricted.           the “Modernisation de l’Etat” in France,     way to look at this from the
                                             the “12 Golden Projects” of the Chinese      perspective of a tax agency is shown
But it is possible to turn this challenge    Central Government, the                      in the table below. There is a
around and see the opportunity to            “Transformational Government” Agenda         dilemma: reduce the tax gap while
transform the way that governments           in the UK, and the “President’s              improving efficiency and being citizen
deliver services. If the source of income    Management Agenda” in the US. These          friendly and at the same time going
is more restricted, then governments         agendas have much in common. They            through a new strategic positioning
have to reduce costs and increase            are predicated on reducing cost,             while the budget decreases.
efficiencies. Typically staff costs form a   investing in new technologies and


              Compliance                               Cost Efficiency                             Citizen-focus
 How to reduce the tax gap by:               How to deliver the same level of service    How to harness new technologies to:
 • making it as easy as possible to          for less money, delivering genuine          • deliver services to the citizen, when
   comply,                                   efficiency gains not simply cost              they want them and how they want
 • having the means to effectively tackle    reductions.                                   them,
   non-compliance.                                                                       • make it easier for the citizen and
                                                                                           businesses to comply with their tax
                                                                                           obligations.

                                                            Change

 These 3 challenges are underpinned by the transformational challenge:
 • Why have a tax agency in the 21st Century?
 • What business is a tax agency in and what is its new business focus?
 • What organizational structure is required?
 • What culture and behaviors are now expected from staff?
 • Does the tax agency have all the skills, capabilities and the capacity to step up to the transformational challenge?
 • Can the tax agency bring about change?

Tax Revenue Management - Reducing the Tax Gap                                                                                        3
These business challenges are not                          Globalization increases the challenges          obligation only. All traditional values
uncommon among most major tax                              of tackling non-compliance and                  are turned upside down. Agencies face
agencies where non-compliance, cost                        impacts the income a country receives           the questions of how to organize,
efficiency and changing services to                        through taxation. Essentially, as more          what responsibility they have, and
meet citizen demands are the norm.                         economic activity globalizes the easier         how to keep control of the new
This is because of the importance of                       it becomes to move money around                 decentralized data collection
the tax agency as the government’s                         and to therefore avoid taxes. And in            structures. Creating bespoke solutions
banker and because taxation provides                       rapidly expanding economies, such as            is out of the question: this takes too
the bulk of the income to enable a                         China, there is the added challenge of          long and the flexibility that is needed
government to function.                                    an entrepreneurial high income                  cannot be designed for – this is
                                                           section of society which, when                  industrial knowledge that is not
Tax agencies have a responsibility to                      combined with a still largely cash-             readily available. Agencies need
reduce the gap between what ought to                       based economy, means tax avoidance              insight to change and make that leap.
be paid and what is collected as taxes.                    is much more likely. As an example of           They must choose the integrator who
With compliance for example, tax                           the impact of globalization look at the         provides the necessary skills,
agencies must bring in the right                           EU where new regulation will allow a            capabilities and the capacity to step
amount of tax and therefore                                transporting firm to file an import             up to the transformational change.
undertake compliance activities                            where it likes – some countries will
because some parts of the taxpaying                        see a large drop in revenues (levying           The Components of Tax & Revenue
community are non-compliant (the                           import duties and VAT might go                  Management
so-called tax gap between what tax                         elsewhere).                                     Within the tax administration
should be collected and what is                                                                            lifecycle, we see the business process
actually collected). This can be caused                    As a result, agencies everywhere are            of managing tax assessment, collection
by lack of insight, error-prone filing                     thinking about their position. New              and enforcement as having nine broad
and negligence, lack of follow-up or                       technical ways arise to collect taxes at        elements – see Illustration 1.
even intentional fraudulent actions.                       the source, which for instance means
                                                           that filing afterwards is a formal              But what Illustration 1 does not take
                                                                                                           into account is the complexity of tax
                                                                                                           and revenue management. Capgemini
Illustration 1: Discrete Steps of Tax Lifecycle
                                                                                                           and SAP have found that, typically,
                                                                                                           the government tax and revenue
                                                                                                           management lifecycle has many
                                                                                                           problems, including:

                                                   Measurement                                             • Single revenue type limitations with
                        Accounting                                          Registration,                    multiple systems, processes and
                                                                              Account
                                                                            Maintenance                      personnel for different taxes causing
                                                                                                             redundant data capture and adding to
                                                                                                             complexity. Most governments have
          Audits,                                                                            Collect Tax
     Tax Inspection &                                                                        Information     dozens of tax and revenue types,
        Detection
                                                                                                             from sales, fuel, tourist development
                                                                                                             and rental car surcharges to
                                                                                                             convention development tax and
        Disputes & Appeals                                                             Returns Filing        documentary stamps on deeds. And
                                                                                       & Processing
                                                                                                             as tax becomes more and more an
                                                                                                             instrument of government policy in
                                     Payments,
                                                            Filing Compliance
                                                                                                             the areas of environmental protection
                                     Collections
                                                                                                             and social wellbeing, the challenge is
                                                                                                             to quickly add new tax and revenue
                                                                                                             types to the tax system.

 4
Public Sector                        the way we do it




• Limited view of the taxpayer with           These problems are exacerbated by                                       ‘hard-wired’ into these applications to
  little or no single view of the             the existing technological                                              mimic a business process. However,
  taxpayer or the taxpayer’s total            environment where most tax agencies                                     once the business process requires
  obligation, resulting in lost revenue       have large-scale legacy systems and                                     some changes, these hard-wired
  and in some cases low compliance.           have not been able to standardize                                       systems now become prohibitively
  Tax agencies typically have different       those systems. Most environments are                                    expensive, as intense programming
  employees and systems to handle             a combination of in-house developed,                                    work is required to change the
  each tax type, with no single point         custom-built, isolated islands of                                       process.
  of visibility into a taxpayer’s overall     automation. In many cases, the
  record. This leads to poorer                multiple systems supporting multiple                                    So when you bring all of these factors
  customer service, a lack of ‘single         revenue types further increase the IT                                   together the reality is that tax agencies
  view of the citizen’, customer data         complexity. Why are custom, ‘one-off’                                   are faced with an environment which
  stored in multiple locations with no        systems so problematic? When we                                         is more like Illustration 2 than the
  easy detection of under and over-           examine the way custom-built                                            ideal of Illustration 1. The ultimate
  payments, and corresponding                 integration has evolved, the                                            pain of such a disjointed environment
  problem resolution becoming                 complexity inherent in custom-built                                     is uncaptured revenue and low
  difficult.                                  integration slows progress and                                          taxpayer compliance rates. The
                                              increases costs. At system level, the                                   challenge is how to change this
• Lower compliance, because risk              logic needed between applications is                                    environment.
  assessment is more difficult due to a
  limited visibility into taxpayers’ total
  obligations and status. In some tax
  agencies this leads to poor targeting
  of audit activities.                        Illustration 2: Pain Points for Tax Agencies


• Low collection efficiency due to the
  higher cost of operations. Typically,                                                                                                                            Redundant systems
                                                                                  Cannot measure revenue                            Legacy, custom-                for each tax,
  we see a high ratio of cost relative to                                         agency effectiveness, low                         built, disconnected
                                                                                                                                                                   revenue and
                                                                                  revenue per dollar spent                          systems for each               receivable type,
  revenue collection. Many tax                        Slow revenue
                                                                                                                                    step in tax lifecycle          multiple sources of
                                                      reconciliation to                                                                                            taxpayer data
  agencies now not only collect                       general fund                                            Measurement
  money, but they make payments to                                                                                                                                          Fragmented
                                                                                  Accounting                                           Registration,                        access for
  businesses and citizens alike in the                                                                                                   Account                            taxpayers
                                               High taxpayer                                                                           Maintenance
  form of refunds, grants and                  burden

  subsidies. This process can often be
                                                                    Audits,                                                                                 Collect Tax
  as inefficient as the collection                             Tax Inspection &                                                                             Information
                                                                  Detection
  process.                                                                                                                                                                    Single
                                                                                                                                                                              revenue
                                                Undetected                                                                                                                    and tax
                                                                                                                                                                              type
• Difficulty in measuring effectiveness,        fraud & tax
                                                evasion, low      Disputes & Appeals                                                              Returns Filing              limitations
                                                                                                                                                  & Processing
  because with no consolidated view             enforced
                                                revenues
                                                                                                                                                                          Limited view of
  of performance across various                                                                                                                                           taxpayer
  processes, transactions, steps,                   Low collection                             Payments,
                                                                                                                       Filing Compliance
                                                    efficiency, high                           Collections
  interactions and data, it is difficult to         cost of operations,
                                                                                                                                               Low voluntary
                                                                                                                                                                          High cost per
                                                                                                                                                                          return filed
                                                    low payment
  have robust performance indicators                                                                                                           tax compliance
                                                    efficiency
                                                                                                                                               and revenues
  that can demonstrate real and
  genuine high quality business
  performance.




Tax Revenue Management - Reducing the Tax Gap                                                                                                                                               5
Adding Complexity to this Environment:
Financial Transactions in the Public Sector

Illustration 3: An example of a transactional process



                               Pre-transaction                                      Transaction                           Fulfillment


                                                                                                                                         8A.
  Customer




             1A. Info               2A. Info              3A.            4A.             5A.             6A.            7A.
   actions




                                                                                                                                         Change
             self-serve             request               Register       Transact        Status          Correct        Appeal /         of
                                                                                         request         error          complain         circum-
                                                                                                                                         stances


                                                                                                                                        8B. Ack-
                                                                                                                                        nowledge
             1B. Auto-              2B. Info              3B. Open       4B. Ack-        5B.             6B. Info       7B.
  Provider
  actions




             respond                respond               account        nowledge        Status          request        Trans-
                                                                                         response                       action          9B. New
                                                                                                                        result          service info




In our view, the complexity is not going                       • Where the state fulfils financial           blend some of them. In the
away. Take for example the financial                             obligations to the citizen – for            Netherlands and the United Kingdom,
transactional functions of tax agencies                          example, payments of social security        the tax agency is now also the
shown in Illustration 3. In his paper “A                         benefits, unemployment benefits,            provider of social security benefits to
Quiet Revolution: Government’s                                   agricultural payments and pensions.         those in work. In Denmark, the tax
Transactional Services”(1), Graham                                                                           agency is responsible for vehicle
Walker set out a simple generic                                • Where the state acts as a service           registration and associated road taxes.
mapping of the transactional process.                            provider (in some instances a               In the United Kingdom, the Education
                                                                 monopoly service provider) and the          Department sets the policy on student
Financial transactions can be readily                            citizen purchases products or               loans, a student loan company
mapped on to this process and                                    services from the state – for example       manages the process and provides the
typically take place in the public                               passports, visas, discounted                loans, but it is the tax agency which
sector for three main reasons:                                   municipal travel passes and student         acts as the loan recovery service. The
                                                                 loans and grants.                           Canadian Government has gone a step
• Where the citizen fulfils financial                                                                        further, aggregating all government
  obligations to the state – for                               In tax agencies these are typically the       services that entail customer contact
  example, the payment of income                               debt management, banking and                  into a single department, Service
  taxes, municipality taxes, sales taxes,                      enforcement functions. But these core         Canada, which is, by implication,
  excise duties, road taxes, fines &                           financial transactional services cut          responsible for all accompanying
  penalties, health & social insurances.                       across the whole of the public sector         financial transactions.
                                                               and there is an emerging trend to




(1)
    A Quiet Revolution: Government’s Transactional
Services, Graham Walker at the UK’s Institute of Public
Policy Research


 6
Public Sector        the way we do it




                                          Table 1: Typical financial business processes and where they occur in the public sector


                                                  Financial Process           Tax      Social     Student       Municipal &
                                                                                      Security    Funding       Regional Govt

                                          Receivable & Payables
                                          Management

                                          Financial Accounting

                                          Collection, Debt Management
                                          & Enforcement

                                          Online Financial Services

                                          Financial Risk Management

                                          Loan Management

                                          Inter-Bank Clearing

                                          Business Intelligence

                                          Records Management



                                          So when we look across the public             Public sector agencies with financial
                                          sector, we have found that there are          transactional services need to look at
                                          significant overlaps in the functions         the underlying processes and consider
                                          responsible for these financial               if they are still fit for purpose. If they
                                          transactional processes (Table 1).            are still highly manual processes, is
                                                                                        this sustainable? If processes are going
                                          At a global level, the public sector is       to move towards automation, then
                                          faced with real pressures to become           they should be re-engineered first, to
                                          more cost efficient, but this can only        avoid inefficiency creeping into the
                                          be achieved by innovative thinking in         changed process and thereby
                                          what are generally seen as these more         reinforcing higher cost. Technology
                                          mundane areas of the public sector.           will be a critical enabler and so
                                          The barriers between the layers of            solution sets will depend on Service
                                          government and between agencies               Oriented Architecture (SOA) as well as
                                          have to be broken down. So there has          on ‘out of the box’ or ‘commercial off-
                                          to be a move away from problem                the-shelf’ (COTS) solutions that enable
                                          solving based on individual agencies,         public sector agencies to introduce
                                          towards a pan-governmental approach           standardized processes with cheaper
                                          (both centrally and locally) to meet          standardized products. But for this to
                                          these challenges.                             succeed, it requires the IT market and
                                                                                        vendors of standardized packages to
                                          We believe that there is a need for a         provide solutions that are stable and
                                          fresh look at how financial                   scalable to ensure they have the
                                          transactional services are managed.           confidence of public sector agencies.

Tax Revenue Management - Reducing the Tax Gap                                                                                   7
A Tax & Revenue Management Solution to Reduce
the Tax Gap

The SAP Tax and Revenue                                  What are the problems associated                            Note that these problems are not
Management for Public Sector                             with non-standardized systems?                              isolated to the CIO, but impact the
package is a holistic tax and revenue                    • Many existing tax agency IT                               entire organization, including the
administration solution that provides                      environments are comprised of                             executives, management and staff
a single view of the taxpayer and                          stand-alone, custom-built, and/or                         within a tax agency. So given the
supports multiple revenue types,                           legacy systems that are literally                         severity of these problems, and the
helping tax agencies increase                              isolated islands of automation, each                      magnitude of the tax gap, how does a
collections and maximize compliance.                       supported by separate staff for each                      standardized solution address these
It is configurable, upgradeable,                           tax and revenue type. This fosters                        pains and problems?
standardized, commercial off-the-shelf                     fraud and reduces compliant tax
software that supports the tax and                         payments because there’s no                               Illustration 4 below represents a view
revenue management life cycle at                           visibility into taxpayers’ overall tax                    of how the SAP Tax and Revenue
lower risk and cost than custom-                           and payment status.                                       Management solution supports the
developed solutions.                                                                                                 key business processes across the tax
                                                         • High maintenance costs to update,                         and administration lifecycle. Note that
In the United States, COTS means the                       integrate and adapt these systems                         the complexity, inefficiency and
same thing as “standardization” as                         with ever-changing technology                             redundancy of Illustration 2 are gone.
used in other parts of the world, and                      advancements, or to change business                       This graphic represents the same tax
is an acronym commonly used in the                         processes mandated by legislative                         and revenue lifecycle but with the
public sector. Both COTS and                               action or constituent demands                             improvements and benefits delivered
standardization refer to things one can                                                                              by SAP to tax agencies.
buy (for sale) from a provider that are                  • Poor customer services for
pre-integrated and available for                           taxpayers, who must communicate                           Each of the green boxes represents a
deployment. These deliver more                             with separate offices for each tax                        capability and benefit that SAP
available functionality, while lowering                    type or fee and have to cross                             delivers to the tax agency, associated
the risk of both initial and ongoing                       organizational boundaries to solve                        with the pains and problems from
costs of custom-developed solutions.                       problems.                                                 Illustration 2.


               Illustration 4: Benefits of the SAP Tax & Revenue Management Solution

                                                          Demonstrate public                  Standardized solution connecting the tax
                                                          accountability, increased revenue   & revenue management lifecycle process
                                                          per dollar spent
                        Accelerate revenue
                        reconciliation to                 Florida: 2nd year ~15%                                         Provide multiple taxpayer
                        general fund                                                                                     access points

                                                                        Revenue Accounting,                                              Support
                                                                           Performance                                                   multiple tax,
                      Foster                                               Benchmarking                     Registration,                revenue and
                      “constituent”                                                                     Account Maintenance              receivable
                      oriented                                                                           and Service Support
                                             Audits, Inspection                                                                          types
                      service
                                               & Detection,                                                                              Florida: 49
                                              Taxpayer Case                                                                              types; 95% of
                                               Management                                                                                all taxes



                                                                                                              Online Forms,
                                                                                                             eFiling, Returns
                   Higher enforced
                   revenues,                                                                                   Processing
                   increased % of                       Collections
                   receivables                                                                                                  Offer “single view of
                                                      & Disbursements                            Filing Compliance              taxpayer” across tax
                   collected
                                                                                                                                types and tax lifecycle
                    Florida: 2nd year ~ 2%


                           Collect money faster, lowered cost of                                    Improved voluntary             Lowered cost per
                           operations, make payments faster                                         tax compliance and             return filed
                                                                                                    revenues
                                                                                                                                   Florida: 2nd year
                            Florida: 2nd year (~4%)                                                  Florida: 2nd year ~10%
                                                                                                                                   (~15%)



 8
Public Sector       the way we do it




                                          First, SAP provides multiple taxpayer      validation of return data; while the
 An example, in the case of the           access points that help speed up,          self-service portal allows 24/7
 Florida Department of Revenue
                                          simplify and reduce barriers to            management of taxpayer accounts and
 (FDOR), USA, increased voluntary
                                          taxpayer interaction by integrating        lowers administrative and paper
 compliance revenues by ~ 10%
 within the second year of                communication channels and                 processing costs.
 implementing SAP. Making it easier       providing ‘one-stop’ registration and
 to pay and allowing multiple             account maintenance capabilities.          Fifth, voluntary compliance is
 payment methods and supporting           Some examples include contact via a        improved by streamlining processes
 single/multiple payments on sum of       taxpayer portal, telephone, email,         through a one-stop collection screen
 all obligations, contributes to          face-to-face and fax. This integrated      detailing taxpayer obligations, status,
 accurate and timely billing. This        online registration process ensures        case documents, payment history, etc.
 lowers the cost per dollar collected     that complete and up-to-date taxpayer      In public sector value terms,
 through accurate, timely and             information is included in the             increasing or maximizing voluntary
 automated billing and collection
                                          automated follow-up processes such         compliance means maximizing the
 processes.
                                          as taxpayer validation and back office     ratio of taxpayers who complete their
 The FDOR also lowered operating          processes like fee collection.             tax returns in compliance with the
 costs by ~ 3% by the second year of                                                 law, file and then pay the full amount
 implementing SAP.                        Secondly, SAP TRM supports many            on time. This capability increases
 The FDOR uses SAP to support over        tax, revenue and receivable types          voluntary compliance by simply
 49 different tax types, representing     across the tax and revenue lifecycle,      ensuring that people are aware of
 95% of all Florida State taxes.          such as taxes, permits, licenses, tolls,   what they owe.
                                          duties, etc. This is particularly
                                          important as tax agencies consider         Sixth, with integrated taxpayer case
                                          providing revenue collection services      management, tax agencies can achieve
                                          within and across the government           higher enforced revenues and
                                          organization. SAP’s single, unified,       increased “percent of receivables
                                          integrated solution can flexibly adapt     collected”, while reducing tax revenue
                                          to changing tax rules and laws and         leakage and maximizing tax recoveries.
                                          can easily add new tax types and tax       Tax agencies can accurately select
                                          schemes.                                   cases for audit and quickly determine
                                                                                     treatment streams for collection.
                                          Thirdly, a single view of the taxpayer     Agencies can manage, track and report
                                          shows the taxpayer’s total obligation,     on the activities, appeals, ruling and
                                          both to the taxpayer and the               results of investigations to ensure
                                          government agency, regardless of           enforcement and compliance. Money
                                          communication channel or tax type.         not collected within 90 days is much
                                          This helps to capture additional           more difficult to collect, but by using
                                          revenues and improve voluntary             Business Intelligence to focus on
                                          compliance.                                efficient collection methods, and
                                                                                     deciding when to pass receivables to
                                          Fourth, multi-channel filing and           collection agencies, tax departments
                                          eFiling lower costs per dollar collected   increase the chance of collection
                                          and reduce processing costs via on-        success. A single view of receivables
                                          line filing and taxpayer self-service      allows the taxpayer’s agent to more
                                          access capabilities, along with linked     efficiently assess and act on doubtful
                                          image retrieval so taxpayers and           accounts across tax regimes. Integrated
                                          employees can quickly access               call center capabilities improve
                                          documents. eFiling and online              efficiency and effectiveness through
                                          payments provide pre-populated             this consolidated view of receivables.
                                          fields, real time calculation and

Tax Revenue Management - Reducing the Tax Gap                                                                              9
Seventh, by providing the taxpayer       Finally, built-in business intelligence     The SAP solution also helps
with a single point of contact,          helps demonstrate public                    synchronize multiple sources of
governments foster improved              accountability and operational              taxpayer data, whether it’s captured in
constituent-oriented services. Tax       transparency. Tax agencies can track        the federal or central government tax
agencies can quickly post payments       and measure against specific KPIs and       departments or even in social service
and returns to taxpayer accounts, and    performance metrics, such as                departments. For example, either
generate refunds on a timely basis.      increased revenue per dollar spent,         constituents have a job (tracked by
Multi-channel enablement and             score against internal service              the tax agency) or they depend on
knowledge management ensure              standards (such as first-call response,     support from the Government
enquiries that are answered              process x% of returns by deadline,          (Department of Health and Human
consistently and on the first contact.   etc.), ‘cost per dollar collected’, or      Services). Or other agencies from both
Activity management ensures that         ‘number of taxpayer cases closed’,          the federal and state or local level
enquiries levels are met and builds a    ‘cost per return filed’, ‘% of electronic   depend on these databases. SAP’s
complete taxpayer history. Outbound      filing’, ‘dollars collected per revenue     Master Data Management (MDM)
campaigns allow proactive education      agent’, ‘tax cases closed per revenue       capabilities help keep taxpayer data in
of taxpayers to improve voluntary        agent per month’, ‘average days to          synch, to maintain a ‘single version of
compliance, and segmentation ensures     issue refund’, ‘% of returns filed          the truth’ and ensure master data
the targeting of only relevant           electronically’.                            consistency across disparate systems.
taxpayers.                                                                           Each agency needing to access
                                         SAP provides a standardized tax and         taxpayer data, whether it is the local
Eighth, integrated financial             revenue management solution that            tax, social services, housing agency
management accelerates revenue           unifies and automates the entire tax        etc, can do so. This fosters inter-
reconciliation to the general ledger,    lifecycle, from registration through        departmental processes to maximize
and lowers the time for financial        remittance processing and audits to         government efficiency.
reconciliation and closing, while        revenue posting and distribution. This
speeding up revenue distribution to      avoids the cost and inefficiency of         The ultimate value of the SAP Tax and
support government programs and          multiple, redundant, custom-built,          Revenue Management solution is that
services.                                legacy and/or stand-alone systems.          it helps tax agencies increase revenues
                                         Each step along the tax and revenue         and taxpayer compliance. This
                                         management lifecycle is linked and          promise is built upon the capabilities
                                         integrated to the other, resulting in       and benefits identified in the
                                         unified data stores, complete taxpayer      preceding pages.
                                         records, and efficient services. SAP’s
                                         COTS solution delivers more available       From a business perspective, there is a
                                         functionality than custom-built             fit between the wide offering and
                                         systems, while lowering the risk and        experience of SAP for tax agencies and
                                         cost of custom-developed solutions.         the experience of Capgemini to
                                         Such solutions help tax agencies            implement the solution and manage
                                         remain current with new technology,         the change process to a 21st century
                                         provide standardization across the          agency.
                                         enterprise, and avoid the high costs of
                                         custom-built solutions, while
                                         supporting adaptable configuration to
                                         changing business rules and ever-
                                         changing tax policy.




10
Public Sector        the way we do it




The Concept behind SAP Tax and Revenue Management


                                          The standardized Tax and Revenue             •Rules determine how the accounting
 • Tax Rules are shared between           solution from SAP has been designed           postings take place, and incorporate
   mass handling processes and the        with a specific approach in mind: to          automatic handling of changes when
   manual handling process so, there      allow flexibility to better follow            events occur in the life of a citizen
   is no confusion about which rule
                                          taxation demands as they arise. The           or company. All changes and
   is valid.
                                          benefits that come from a unified             corrections are booked and are
 • Tax Objects are shared between         taxation platform are based on the            always linked back to the original
   tax types so, there are no             capability to make the framework              postings.
   redundancies in data.                  behave in the way that fits the tax
                                          regime and future plans.                     The way SAP uses rules in the TRM
 • Changes in circumstances can be                                                     business component offers a high degree
   automatically evaluated for their      To be able to do this, processes must        of flexibility in taxation. TRM is an open
   impact on current or even old          make use of common services and              platform that can be adapted and
   taxes. These events can trigger        standard transactions. It also points in     adopted to levy any type of tax or even
   handling in more than one tax          another direction. Governance takes a        for providing subsidies. By being able to
   type.
                                          central position in the design. SAP          manage the transient models and ever-
                                          TRM can easily be configured to adapt        changing parameters of a tax regime,
 • Tax payers have the possibility to
   use on-line and interactive            to changing business rules and ever-         TRM can closely track the political
   electronic forms to file their taxes   changing tax policy. It allows a short       decision-making cycle on regulations
   so the burden of complying with        implementation time for new tax rules        and taxation rules. In this way, SAP TRM
   tax ruling is reduced.                 —months not years. This leads to a           is a multi-purpose tax framework that
                                          lower Total Cost of Ownership. A lot         can accommodate parallel sets of
 • Forms are personalized and pre-        of skills are needed to create the           configurations within a common
   filled to be client-friendly and       structure of the framework so that it        process. Managing these rules is a new
   reduce filing errors.                  fits in with the tax agencies’ national      business function for the agency.
                                          legislation, know-how and working
                                          practices.                                   One key to the transformation of the
                                                                                       agency is the development of the new
                                          The core component of TRM is based           business function with the associated
                                          upon business rules in a structure that      processes to manage the new wealth of
                                          has been developed specifically for          frameworks. The variable components
                                          executing taxation and handling              (transient) that directly identify how a
                                          subsidies. The rules can be changed          tax is levied or a benefit is provided, is
                                          simply and re-used.                          bound to change endlessly—the
                                                                                       responsiveness to new regulation,
                                          • Rules are used to check and validate       creating new handling, exceptions,
                                            data on a filed tax form or on a           terms and conditions are crucial.
                                            submitted application form.                These must be developed in its own
                                          •Rules are used to perform complex           environment, in what we like to call
                                            calculations that reflect specific         the policy cycle time. The agency in
                                            legislative circumstances or legal         this way can easily change states: SAP
                                            precedents.                                TRM is a component of the new
                                          •Rules can filter out cases for              system’s structure designed to deliver a
                                            exception handling. In cases where         highly scalable handling while still
                                            the filing does not fit the basic rules,   allowing a fast turn-around to change
                                            a case will be made and the case will      a regime or implement new taxation.
                                            be handed over to an expert.               Taxation excellence builds on the
                                                                                       capability to effectively manage this
                                                                                       governance of tax business rules in line
                                                                                       with the policy development cycle.

Tax Revenue Management - Reducing the Tax Gap                                                                                 11
Illustration 5: The SAP Tax and Revenue Management Solution

                                                  SAP CRM                                     SAP ERP

                                                                         Registration                         Online Bill
                                                                                                             Presentment
                                                                                                              & Payment
                                                  Financial               Returns Processing
                                                  Customer                                                      FSCM
                                                                                                             Biller Direct
                                                    Care                      Receivables &
                          Enterprise Portal




                                                                                Payables
                                                 Audit Case                   Management                       Budget
                                                 Bankruptcy
                                                   Case                   Revenue Accounting                  Controlling


                                                                Collections Management                        Financials

                                                                                       PSCD                     EA-PS *

                                                  Case/Records                                                  Business
                                                  Management                Rules Engine      Workflow         Intelligence
                                                                                                             Tax Estimation
                                                     Documents
                                                                                   SAP NetWeaver              Tax Analysis

                                              * Enterprise Application Public Sector




Illustration 5 above shows an                                market. PSCD is a world standard and        tailoring to a specific product, service
overview of the SAP Tax and Revenue                          proven in high volume environments          and regulatory domain. These best-in-
Management solution with its key                             in the primary process. Scenarios           class components bring specific
components. The basic solution                               cater to the needs of specific groups of    know-how to the table. Capgemini
comes with a wealth of components:                           constituents or enterprises. Back-office    has close relationships with SAP
customer interaction solutions to                            handling can be unified into a core         solution partners and has integrated
provide access to citizens or                                competence across tax regimes. It is        many external applications in SAP
businesses. The office worker makes                          optimized for fast handling of large        environments.
use of the existing frameworks for                           volumes of data. SAP CRM has been
financial customer care and case                             created to map the large array of           Implementing a new solution is not a
management of Customer Relations                             relationships between customers. It         one-off project in a greenfield
Management (SAP CRM). The Public                             can easily capture the types of             situation. There is a need to integrate
Services Collection and                                      relationships between taxpayers and         many existing systems in a larger,
Disbursements (SAP PSCD)                                     their tax obligations and handle the        unified environment. Capgemini has
component is used for high volume                            historical situations of developing         the industrial knowledge and leading-
handling of all payment obligations.                         events in the lifecycle of a taxpayer –     edge capabilities in developing service
Common functions are available for                           or his/her relevant environment –           architectures around SAP in the public
filing the tax documents, managing                           related to a tax obligation.                sector and in many industry
the taxation rules, setting up and                                                                       deployments. Capgemini provides the
managing the workflows.                                      The SAP business platform can be            insight from global projects, the
                                                             extended with external applications         necessary skills as a leader in SAP
TRM is based on Public Sector                                designed to deliver specific                integration, the capabilities and the
Collections and Disbursements. It                            functionality and style of execution or     capacity to manage the change needed
makes use of the common industry                             can be used to leverage the embedded        to allow tax agencies to stand up to
capabilities that are in widespread use                      know-how. These solutions contain           the transformational challenge.
in the insurance and banking sector                          domain knowledge and have
and on the utilities and telecom                             configurable parameters that allow


12
Public Sector   the way we do it




Conclusion: Collaboration and Working Together


In this paper Capgemini and SAP           Governments are understandably
have discussed the complex                reluctant to increase taxes and duties.
challenges facing tax agencies around     The need to support legislation,
the world. This complexity is driven      policies, and spending requirements
by:                                       in such areas as education and
                                          healthcare, drives these agencies to
• globalization,                          capture all appropriate revenues due
• citizen demands for better service      to the government and to increase
   and easier access,                     compliance.
• the compliance challenge of
                                          SAP and Capgemini are working
   reducing the tax gap,
                                          collaboratively to help tax agencies
• the complexity of technological         face and overcome these challenges.
   change,                                Together, our industry expertise,
Government agencies are under             comprehensive solutions and proven
tremendous pressure to provide            results will ensure that your tax
responsive services to constituents,      agency is able to achieve one core
while financial support for these         mission: to increase revenues and
services is limited or diminishing.       improve taxpayer compliance. This
                                          mission is to increase revenues and
                                          improve taxpayer compliance, thus
                                          making the transition to a 21st
                                          century government agency.




Tax Revenue Management - Reducing the Tax Gap                                                                     13
Appendix
Capgemini References

     • “Global CIO Survey 2008” (2008)
     • “Rising to the Challenge of Financial Transactional Services in the Public Sector”(2008)
     • “More for Less. A Reality for Tax Agencies” (2007)
     • “Compliance: Different Tax Systems, Common Challenges” (2007)
     • “Strategic Sourcing of IT Services” (2007)
     • “Capgemini’s Enterprise SOA Adoption Program for the Public Sector” (2007)

SAP References

     • “SAP Tax and Revenue Management for Public Sector” (2008)
     • “The Power of Community” (2008)
     • “SAP Tax and Revenue Management for Public Sector” (2006)



Capgemini Contacts

     • Ian Pretty, VP, Global Public Sector, Tax & Customs Lead
       ian.pretty@capgemini.com – +31 (0)30 689 9602
     • Mario Halfhide, VP, Public Sector Business Development and Sales
       mario.halfhide@capgemini.com – + 31 (0)30 689 0380
     • Renate Radon, VP, Global Alliance Executive
       renate.radon@capgemini.com – +49 (0)69 9515 2909

SAP Contacts

For further details about the SAP TRM offering, please contact:

     • Gilad Gans, VP, Head of SAP Public Services Industry at SAP EMEA
       gilad.gans@sap.com – +33 (0)1 44 45 21 16
     • Markus A. Werling, VP, Head of Business Unit Tax, Revenue and Customs Management, IBU Public Sector
       markus.werling@sap.com – +49 (0)62 2776 2228

     • Russ LeFevre, VP, Head of Industry Solution Marketing, Public Services
       russ.lefevre@sap.com – +1-202-361-9757

For further details about the partnership between SAP and Capgemini at EMEA:

     • Guy Danon, Director, SAP EMEA Ecosystem and Partner Group
       guy.danon@sap.com – +33 (0)6 63 31 23 20




14
Public Sector   the way we see it




Foot-Right; Foot-Document Title; Helvetica 65 medium 8pt                                 15
www.capgemini.com/public




                    About Capgemini and the
                    Collaborative Business Experience®

                  Capgemini, one of the            and through a global delivery model
              world’s foremost providers           called Rightshore®, which aims to offer
 of consulting, technology and                     the right resources in the right location at
 outsourcing services, enables its clients         competitive cost. Present in 36 countries,
 to transform and perform through                  Capgemini reported 2007 global
 technologies.                                     revenues of EUR 8.7 billion and employs
                                                   over 83,000 people worldwide.
 Capgemini provides its clients with
 insights and capabilities that boost their        More information about our services,
 freedom to achieve superior results               offices and research is available at
 through a unique way of working - the             www.capgemini.com/public
 Collaborative Business Experience® -




                             About SAP & the Industry Value Network


 The Industry Value Network group for              our customers to maximize their public
 public sector brings together leading-            value through increased interoperability,
 edge independent software vendors,                reduced total cost of ownership, and
 technology vendors, system integrators,           improved transparency.
 SAP, and customers to focus on key
 priority business needs and opportunities         With a focus on the business process of
 within the public sector industry.                tax and revenue management, members
                                                   of the Industry Value Network group for
 The group drives strong collaboration             public sector – customers, partners, and
 among members to accelerate co-                   SAP – are collaborating to deliver
 innovation on SAP’s common platform               innovative solutions and new, extended
 and to provide integrated, multivendor            integration scenarios that help governments
 solutions and services that support key           maximize taxpayer compliance and
 end-to-end public sector business                 increase revenue collection.
 processes for our customers. This enables




Authors
Ian Pretty – Capgemini
Mario Halfhide – Capgemini
Russ LeFevre – SAP



Copyright © 2008 Capgemini. All rights reserved.

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Reducing The Tax Gap Brochure

  • 1. in collaboration with Tax & Revenue Management – Reducing the Tax Gap
  • 2. Introduction & Context Tax agencies are agents of change Consider these facts: within the public sector, responding • Taxes (income, sales, property, fuel, to citizen-focused government estate, etc.) are typically the single pressures that stem from a highest component of government combination of constituent-led revenues. demand, compliance pressures and • Revenue-generating, citizen-facing political mandates. Throughout the agencies like tax agencies all have world, governments are being technology modernization strategies. challenged by citizens to deliver better, less costly and more customer- • Between 2000 and 2004 the UK's focused services. This requires ‘Corporation Tax Gap’ (the difference different channels for delivering between the expected rates of tax services to the citizen, fundamental that UK companies should pay and changes to government culture and what they actually paid) saw the top employee behavior and a new 50 UK companies paying around 30 consideration of the channels through billion euros less tax on their profits which services are delivered. than expected rates would suggest appropriate. Within this changing environment, • The tax gap according to USA’s tax agencies, as the ‘de facto’ banker Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is of government, have a central role to estimated to be over 250bn euros. play not just in collecting the taxes to fund public services but also as a key This is serious money. So finding citizen-facing organization. solutions that enhance citizen services while improving the collection of taxes has high urgency amongst tax agencies. In this paper we will explore the general trends and put forward the shared view of Capgemini and SAP on a solution to improve tax and revenue management and help tax agencies increase revenues and taxpayer compliance. We aim to help you to ‘mind the gap’ whether you’re looking at it from the perspective of a solid business case or as it fits in with societal developments and the new positioning of the tax department. 2
  • 3. Public Sector the way we do it What are the compelling pressures tax agencies face today? Governments – particularly those in high percentage of government service changing the way in which frontline Europe and North America – are faced expenditures, so there is an and back office services are delivered. with a dilemma. Better services to the opportunity to seize this and use it to a citizen cost money, but the citizen is government’s advantage by: New technologies have also no longer willing to pay more taxes to fundamentally changed the way in pay for these services. In addition, as • investing in new, less expensive ways which services, whether they are in economies globalize, businesses are to deliver frontline services to the the private or public sector, are taking corporate tax rates into citizen, delivered. This has seen the channels consideration in their investment • looking at how they can create more of delivery moving away from appraisals – in effect, governments effective back office, public traditional face-to-face contact to call have to use corporate tax rates as a administrative functions for less cost, centers and the Internet. Technology means to compete with one another has created flexibility in how and • looking to where others can provide and so make their country an where services are delivered while services at a lower cost, attractive investment proposition. So offering new ways to take out cost. the revenue streams open to • embracing flexible and adaptive government have become tighter – tax technology. Four Challenges Facing Tax rates cannot be increased, the Agencies taxpaying population is decreasing Most countries are investing in Tax agencies cannot escape these and within the EU the opportunities modernization programs, for example public sector challenges. A simple to borrow are now more restricted. the “Modernisation de l’Etat” in France, way to look at this from the the “12 Golden Projects” of the Chinese perspective of a tax agency is shown But it is possible to turn this challenge Central Government, the in the table below. There is a around and see the opportunity to “Transformational Government” Agenda dilemma: reduce the tax gap while transform the way that governments in the UK, and the “President’s improving efficiency and being citizen deliver services. If the source of income Management Agenda” in the US. These friendly and at the same time going is more restricted, then governments agendas have much in common. They through a new strategic positioning have to reduce costs and increase are predicated on reducing cost, while the budget decreases. efficiencies. Typically staff costs form a investing in new technologies and Compliance Cost Efficiency Citizen-focus How to reduce the tax gap by: How to deliver the same level of service How to harness new technologies to: • making it as easy as possible to for less money, delivering genuine • deliver services to the citizen, when comply, efficiency gains not simply cost they want them and how they want • having the means to effectively tackle reductions. them, non-compliance. • make it easier for the citizen and businesses to comply with their tax obligations. Change These 3 challenges are underpinned by the transformational challenge: • Why have a tax agency in the 21st Century? • What business is a tax agency in and what is its new business focus? • What organizational structure is required? • What culture and behaviors are now expected from staff? • Does the tax agency have all the skills, capabilities and the capacity to step up to the transformational challenge? • Can the tax agency bring about change? Tax Revenue Management - Reducing the Tax Gap 3
  • 4. These business challenges are not Globalization increases the challenges obligation only. All traditional values uncommon among most major tax of tackling non-compliance and are turned upside down. Agencies face agencies where non-compliance, cost impacts the income a country receives the questions of how to organize, efficiency and changing services to through taxation. Essentially, as more what responsibility they have, and meet citizen demands are the norm. economic activity globalizes the easier how to keep control of the new This is because of the importance of it becomes to move money around decentralized data collection the tax agency as the government’s and to therefore avoid taxes. And in structures. Creating bespoke solutions banker and because taxation provides rapidly expanding economies, such as is out of the question: this takes too the bulk of the income to enable a China, there is the added challenge of long and the flexibility that is needed government to function. an entrepreneurial high income cannot be designed for – this is section of society which, when industrial knowledge that is not Tax agencies have a responsibility to combined with a still largely cash- readily available. Agencies need reduce the gap between what ought to based economy, means tax avoidance insight to change and make that leap. be paid and what is collected as taxes. is much more likely. As an example of They must choose the integrator who With compliance for example, tax the impact of globalization look at the provides the necessary skills, agencies must bring in the right EU where new regulation will allow a capabilities and the capacity to step amount of tax and therefore transporting firm to file an import up to the transformational change. undertake compliance activities where it likes – some countries will because some parts of the taxpaying see a large drop in revenues (levying The Components of Tax & Revenue community are non-compliant (the import duties and VAT might go Management so-called tax gap between what tax elsewhere). Within the tax administration should be collected and what is lifecycle, we see the business process actually collected). This can be caused As a result, agencies everywhere are of managing tax assessment, collection by lack of insight, error-prone filing thinking about their position. New and enforcement as having nine broad and negligence, lack of follow-up or technical ways arise to collect taxes at elements – see Illustration 1. even intentional fraudulent actions. the source, which for instance means that filing afterwards is a formal But what Illustration 1 does not take into account is the complexity of tax and revenue management. Capgemini Illustration 1: Discrete Steps of Tax Lifecycle and SAP have found that, typically, the government tax and revenue management lifecycle has many problems, including: Measurement • Single revenue type limitations with Accounting Registration, multiple systems, processes and Account Maintenance personnel for different taxes causing redundant data capture and adding to complexity. Most governments have Audits, Collect Tax Tax Inspection & Information dozens of tax and revenue types, Detection from sales, fuel, tourist development and rental car surcharges to convention development tax and Disputes & Appeals Returns Filing documentary stamps on deeds. And & Processing as tax becomes more and more an instrument of government policy in Payments, Filing Compliance the areas of environmental protection Collections and social wellbeing, the challenge is to quickly add new tax and revenue types to the tax system. 4
  • 5. Public Sector the way we do it • Limited view of the taxpayer with These problems are exacerbated by ‘hard-wired’ into these applications to little or no single view of the the existing technological mimic a business process. However, taxpayer or the taxpayer’s total environment where most tax agencies once the business process requires obligation, resulting in lost revenue have large-scale legacy systems and some changes, these hard-wired and in some cases low compliance. have not been able to standardize systems now become prohibitively Tax agencies typically have different those systems. Most environments are expensive, as intense programming employees and systems to handle a combination of in-house developed, work is required to change the each tax type, with no single point custom-built, isolated islands of process. of visibility into a taxpayer’s overall automation. In many cases, the record. This leads to poorer multiple systems supporting multiple So when you bring all of these factors customer service, a lack of ‘single revenue types further increase the IT together the reality is that tax agencies view of the citizen’, customer data complexity. Why are custom, ‘one-off’ are faced with an environment which stored in multiple locations with no systems so problematic? When we is more like Illustration 2 than the easy detection of under and over- examine the way custom-built ideal of Illustration 1. The ultimate payments, and corresponding integration has evolved, the pain of such a disjointed environment problem resolution becoming complexity inherent in custom-built is uncaptured revenue and low difficult. integration slows progress and taxpayer compliance rates. The increases costs. At system level, the challenge is how to change this • Lower compliance, because risk logic needed between applications is environment. assessment is more difficult due to a limited visibility into taxpayers’ total obligations and status. In some tax agencies this leads to poor targeting of audit activities. Illustration 2: Pain Points for Tax Agencies • Low collection efficiency due to the higher cost of operations. Typically, Redundant systems Cannot measure revenue Legacy, custom- for each tax, we see a high ratio of cost relative to agency effectiveness, low built, disconnected revenue and revenue per dollar spent systems for each receivable type, revenue collection. Many tax Slow revenue step in tax lifecycle multiple sources of reconciliation to taxpayer data agencies now not only collect general fund Measurement money, but they make payments to Fragmented Accounting Registration, access for businesses and citizens alike in the Account taxpayers High taxpayer Maintenance form of refunds, grants and burden subsidies. This process can often be Audits, Collect Tax as inefficient as the collection Tax Inspection & Information Detection process. Single revenue Undetected and tax type • Difficulty in measuring effectiveness, fraud & tax evasion, low Disputes & Appeals Returns Filing limitations & Processing because with no consolidated view enforced revenues Limited view of of performance across various taxpayer processes, transactions, steps, Low collection Payments, Filing Compliance efficiency, high Collections interactions and data, it is difficult to cost of operations, Low voluntary High cost per return filed low payment have robust performance indicators tax compliance efficiency and revenues that can demonstrate real and genuine high quality business performance. Tax Revenue Management - Reducing the Tax Gap 5
  • 6. Adding Complexity to this Environment: Financial Transactions in the Public Sector Illustration 3: An example of a transactional process Pre-transaction Transaction Fulfillment 8A. Customer 1A. Info 2A. Info 3A. 4A. 5A. 6A. 7A. actions Change self-serve request Register Transact Status Correct Appeal / of request error complain circum- stances 8B. Ack- nowledge 1B. Auto- 2B. Info 3B. Open 4B. Ack- 5B. 6B. Info 7B. Provider actions respond respond account nowledge Status request Trans- response action 9B. New result service info In our view, the complexity is not going • Where the state fulfils financial blend some of them. In the away. Take for example the financial obligations to the citizen – for Netherlands and the United Kingdom, transactional functions of tax agencies example, payments of social security the tax agency is now also the shown in Illustration 3. In his paper “A benefits, unemployment benefits, provider of social security benefits to Quiet Revolution: Government’s agricultural payments and pensions. those in work. In Denmark, the tax Transactional Services”(1), Graham agency is responsible for vehicle Walker set out a simple generic • Where the state acts as a service registration and associated road taxes. mapping of the transactional process. provider (in some instances a In the United Kingdom, the Education monopoly service provider) and the Department sets the policy on student Financial transactions can be readily citizen purchases products or loans, a student loan company mapped on to this process and services from the state – for example manages the process and provides the typically take place in the public passports, visas, discounted loans, but it is the tax agency which sector for three main reasons: municipal travel passes and student acts as the loan recovery service. The loans and grants. Canadian Government has gone a step • Where the citizen fulfils financial further, aggregating all government obligations to the state – for In tax agencies these are typically the services that entail customer contact example, the payment of income debt management, banking and into a single department, Service taxes, municipality taxes, sales taxes, enforcement functions. But these core Canada, which is, by implication, excise duties, road taxes, fines & financial transactional services cut responsible for all accompanying penalties, health & social insurances. across the whole of the public sector financial transactions. and there is an emerging trend to (1) A Quiet Revolution: Government’s Transactional Services, Graham Walker at the UK’s Institute of Public Policy Research 6
  • 7. Public Sector the way we do it Table 1: Typical financial business processes and where they occur in the public sector Financial Process Tax Social Student Municipal & Security Funding Regional Govt Receivable & Payables Management Financial Accounting Collection, Debt Management & Enforcement Online Financial Services Financial Risk Management Loan Management Inter-Bank Clearing Business Intelligence Records Management So when we look across the public Public sector agencies with financial sector, we have found that there are transactional services need to look at significant overlaps in the functions the underlying processes and consider responsible for these financial if they are still fit for purpose. If they transactional processes (Table 1). are still highly manual processes, is this sustainable? If processes are going At a global level, the public sector is to move towards automation, then faced with real pressures to become they should be re-engineered first, to more cost efficient, but this can only avoid inefficiency creeping into the be achieved by innovative thinking in changed process and thereby what are generally seen as these more reinforcing higher cost. Technology mundane areas of the public sector. will be a critical enabler and so The barriers between the layers of solution sets will depend on Service government and between agencies Oriented Architecture (SOA) as well as have to be broken down. So there has on ‘out of the box’ or ‘commercial off- to be a move away from problem the-shelf’ (COTS) solutions that enable solving based on individual agencies, public sector agencies to introduce towards a pan-governmental approach standardized processes with cheaper (both centrally and locally) to meet standardized products. But for this to these challenges. succeed, it requires the IT market and vendors of standardized packages to We believe that there is a need for a provide solutions that are stable and fresh look at how financial scalable to ensure they have the transactional services are managed. confidence of public sector agencies. Tax Revenue Management - Reducing the Tax Gap 7
  • 8. A Tax & Revenue Management Solution to Reduce the Tax Gap The SAP Tax and Revenue What are the problems associated Note that these problems are not Management for Public Sector with non-standardized systems? isolated to the CIO, but impact the package is a holistic tax and revenue • Many existing tax agency IT entire organization, including the administration solution that provides environments are comprised of executives, management and staff a single view of the taxpayer and stand-alone, custom-built, and/or within a tax agency. So given the supports multiple revenue types, legacy systems that are literally severity of these problems, and the helping tax agencies increase isolated islands of automation, each magnitude of the tax gap, how does a collections and maximize compliance. supported by separate staff for each standardized solution address these It is configurable, upgradeable, tax and revenue type. This fosters pains and problems? standardized, commercial off-the-shelf fraud and reduces compliant tax software that supports the tax and payments because there’s no Illustration 4 below represents a view revenue management life cycle at visibility into taxpayers’ overall tax of how the SAP Tax and Revenue lower risk and cost than custom- and payment status. Management solution supports the developed solutions. key business processes across the tax • High maintenance costs to update, and administration lifecycle. Note that In the United States, COTS means the integrate and adapt these systems the complexity, inefficiency and same thing as “standardization” as with ever-changing technology redundancy of Illustration 2 are gone. used in other parts of the world, and advancements, or to change business This graphic represents the same tax is an acronym commonly used in the processes mandated by legislative and revenue lifecycle but with the public sector. Both COTS and action or constituent demands improvements and benefits delivered standardization refer to things one can by SAP to tax agencies. buy (for sale) from a provider that are • Poor customer services for pre-integrated and available for taxpayers, who must communicate Each of the green boxes represents a deployment. These deliver more with separate offices for each tax capability and benefit that SAP available functionality, while lowering type or fee and have to cross delivers to the tax agency, associated the risk of both initial and ongoing organizational boundaries to solve with the pains and problems from costs of custom-developed solutions. problems. Illustration 2. Illustration 4: Benefits of the SAP Tax & Revenue Management Solution Demonstrate public Standardized solution connecting the tax accountability, increased revenue & revenue management lifecycle process per dollar spent Accelerate revenue reconciliation to Florida: 2nd year ~15% Provide multiple taxpayer general fund access points Revenue Accounting, Support Performance multiple tax, Foster Benchmarking Registration, revenue and “constituent” Account Maintenance receivable oriented and Service Support Audits, Inspection types service & Detection, Florida: 49 Taxpayer Case types; 95% of Management all taxes Online Forms, eFiling, Returns Higher enforced revenues, Processing increased % of Collections receivables Offer “single view of & Disbursements Filing Compliance taxpayer” across tax collected types and tax lifecycle Florida: 2nd year ~ 2% Collect money faster, lowered cost of Improved voluntary Lowered cost per operations, make payments faster tax compliance and return filed revenues Florida: 2nd year Florida: 2nd year (~4%) Florida: 2nd year ~10% (~15%) 8
  • 9. Public Sector the way we do it First, SAP provides multiple taxpayer validation of return data; while the An example, in the case of the access points that help speed up, self-service portal allows 24/7 Florida Department of Revenue simplify and reduce barriers to management of taxpayer accounts and (FDOR), USA, increased voluntary taxpayer interaction by integrating lowers administrative and paper compliance revenues by ~ 10% within the second year of communication channels and processing costs. implementing SAP. Making it easier providing ‘one-stop’ registration and to pay and allowing multiple account maintenance capabilities. Fifth, voluntary compliance is payment methods and supporting Some examples include contact via a improved by streamlining processes single/multiple payments on sum of taxpayer portal, telephone, email, through a one-stop collection screen all obligations, contributes to face-to-face and fax. This integrated detailing taxpayer obligations, status, accurate and timely billing. This online registration process ensures case documents, payment history, etc. lowers the cost per dollar collected that complete and up-to-date taxpayer In public sector value terms, through accurate, timely and information is included in the increasing or maximizing voluntary automated billing and collection automated follow-up processes such compliance means maximizing the processes. as taxpayer validation and back office ratio of taxpayers who complete their The FDOR also lowered operating processes like fee collection. tax returns in compliance with the costs by ~ 3% by the second year of law, file and then pay the full amount implementing SAP. Secondly, SAP TRM supports many on time. This capability increases The FDOR uses SAP to support over tax, revenue and receivable types voluntary compliance by simply 49 different tax types, representing across the tax and revenue lifecycle, ensuring that people are aware of 95% of all Florida State taxes. such as taxes, permits, licenses, tolls, what they owe. duties, etc. This is particularly important as tax agencies consider Sixth, with integrated taxpayer case providing revenue collection services management, tax agencies can achieve within and across the government higher enforced revenues and organization. SAP’s single, unified, increased “percent of receivables integrated solution can flexibly adapt collected”, while reducing tax revenue to changing tax rules and laws and leakage and maximizing tax recoveries. can easily add new tax types and tax Tax agencies can accurately select schemes. cases for audit and quickly determine treatment streams for collection. Thirdly, a single view of the taxpayer Agencies can manage, track and report shows the taxpayer’s total obligation, on the activities, appeals, ruling and both to the taxpayer and the results of investigations to ensure government agency, regardless of enforcement and compliance. Money communication channel or tax type. not collected within 90 days is much This helps to capture additional more difficult to collect, but by using revenues and improve voluntary Business Intelligence to focus on compliance. efficient collection methods, and deciding when to pass receivables to Fourth, multi-channel filing and collection agencies, tax departments eFiling lower costs per dollar collected increase the chance of collection and reduce processing costs via on- success. A single view of receivables line filing and taxpayer self-service allows the taxpayer’s agent to more access capabilities, along with linked efficiently assess and act on doubtful image retrieval so taxpayers and accounts across tax regimes. Integrated employees can quickly access call center capabilities improve documents. eFiling and online efficiency and effectiveness through payments provide pre-populated this consolidated view of receivables. fields, real time calculation and Tax Revenue Management - Reducing the Tax Gap 9
  • 10. Seventh, by providing the taxpayer Finally, built-in business intelligence The SAP solution also helps with a single point of contact, helps demonstrate public synchronize multiple sources of governments foster improved accountability and operational taxpayer data, whether it’s captured in constituent-oriented services. Tax transparency. Tax agencies can track the federal or central government tax agencies can quickly post payments and measure against specific KPIs and departments or even in social service and returns to taxpayer accounts, and performance metrics, such as departments. For example, either generate refunds on a timely basis. increased revenue per dollar spent, constituents have a job (tracked by Multi-channel enablement and score against internal service the tax agency) or they depend on knowledge management ensure standards (such as first-call response, support from the Government enquiries that are answered process x% of returns by deadline, (Department of Health and Human consistently and on the first contact. etc.), ‘cost per dollar collected’, or Services). Or other agencies from both Activity management ensures that ‘number of taxpayer cases closed’, the federal and state or local level enquiries levels are met and builds a ‘cost per return filed’, ‘% of electronic depend on these databases. SAP’s complete taxpayer history. Outbound filing’, ‘dollars collected per revenue Master Data Management (MDM) campaigns allow proactive education agent’, ‘tax cases closed per revenue capabilities help keep taxpayer data in of taxpayers to improve voluntary agent per month’, ‘average days to synch, to maintain a ‘single version of compliance, and segmentation ensures issue refund’, ‘% of returns filed the truth’ and ensure master data the targeting of only relevant electronically’. consistency across disparate systems. taxpayers. Each agency needing to access SAP provides a standardized tax and taxpayer data, whether it is the local Eighth, integrated financial revenue management solution that tax, social services, housing agency management accelerates revenue unifies and automates the entire tax etc, can do so. This fosters inter- reconciliation to the general ledger, lifecycle, from registration through departmental processes to maximize and lowers the time for financial remittance processing and audits to government efficiency. reconciliation and closing, while revenue posting and distribution. This speeding up revenue distribution to avoids the cost and inefficiency of The ultimate value of the SAP Tax and support government programs and multiple, redundant, custom-built, Revenue Management solution is that services. legacy and/or stand-alone systems. it helps tax agencies increase revenues Each step along the tax and revenue and taxpayer compliance. This management lifecycle is linked and promise is built upon the capabilities integrated to the other, resulting in and benefits identified in the unified data stores, complete taxpayer preceding pages. records, and efficient services. SAP’s COTS solution delivers more available From a business perspective, there is a functionality than custom-built fit between the wide offering and systems, while lowering the risk and experience of SAP for tax agencies and cost of custom-developed solutions. the experience of Capgemini to Such solutions help tax agencies implement the solution and manage remain current with new technology, the change process to a 21st century provide standardization across the agency. enterprise, and avoid the high costs of custom-built solutions, while supporting adaptable configuration to changing business rules and ever- changing tax policy. 10
  • 11. Public Sector the way we do it The Concept behind SAP Tax and Revenue Management The standardized Tax and Revenue •Rules determine how the accounting • Tax Rules are shared between solution from SAP has been designed postings take place, and incorporate mass handling processes and the with a specific approach in mind: to automatic handling of changes when manual handling process so, there allow flexibility to better follow events occur in the life of a citizen is no confusion about which rule taxation demands as they arise. The or company. All changes and is valid. benefits that come from a unified corrections are booked and are • Tax Objects are shared between taxation platform are based on the always linked back to the original tax types so, there are no capability to make the framework postings. redundancies in data. behave in the way that fits the tax regime and future plans. The way SAP uses rules in the TRM • Changes in circumstances can be business component offers a high degree automatically evaluated for their To be able to do this, processes must of flexibility in taxation. TRM is an open impact on current or even old make use of common services and platform that can be adapted and taxes. These events can trigger standard transactions. It also points in adopted to levy any type of tax or even handling in more than one tax another direction. Governance takes a for providing subsidies. By being able to type. central position in the design. SAP manage the transient models and ever- TRM can easily be configured to adapt changing parameters of a tax regime, • Tax payers have the possibility to use on-line and interactive to changing business rules and ever- TRM can closely track the political electronic forms to file their taxes changing tax policy. It allows a short decision-making cycle on regulations so the burden of complying with implementation time for new tax rules and taxation rules. In this way, SAP TRM tax ruling is reduced. —months not years. This leads to a is a multi-purpose tax framework that lower Total Cost of Ownership. A lot can accommodate parallel sets of • Forms are personalized and pre- of skills are needed to create the configurations within a common filled to be client-friendly and structure of the framework so that it process. Managing these rules is a new reduce filing errors. fits in with the tax agencies’ national business function for the agency. legislation, know-how and working practices. One key to the transformation of the agency is the development of the new The core component of TRM is based business function with the associated upon business rules in a structure that processes to manage the new wealth of has been developed specifically for frameworks. The variable components executing taxation and handling (transient) that directly identify how a subsidies. The rules can be changed tax is levied or a benefit is provided, is simply and re-used. bound to change endlessly—the responsiveness to new regulation, • Rules are used to check and validate creating new handling, exceptions, data on a filed tax form or on a terms and conditions are crucial. submitted application form. These must be developed in its own •Rules are used to perform complex environment, in what we like to call calculations that reflect specific the policy cycle time. The agency in legislative circumstances or legal this way can easily change states: SAP precedents. TRM is a component of the new •Rules can filter out cases for system’s structure designed to deliver a exception handling. In cases where highly scalable handling while still the filing does not fit the basic rules, allowing a fast turn-around to change a case will be made and the case will a regime or implement new taxation. be handed over to an expert. Taxation excellence builds on the capability to effectively manage this governance of tax business rules in line with the policy development cycle. Tax Revenue Management - Reducing the Tax Gap 11
  • 12. Illustration 5: The SAP Tax and Revenue Management Solution SAP CRM SAP ERP Registration Online Bill Presentment & Payment Financial Returns Processing Customer FSCM Biller Direct Care Receivables & Enterprise Portal Payables Audit Case Management Budget Bankruptcy Case Revenue Accounting Controlling Collections Management Financials PSCD EA-PS * Case/Records Business Management Rules Engine Workflow Intelligence Tax Estimation Documents SAP NetWeaver Tax Analysis * Enterprise Application Public Sector Illustration 5 above shows an market. PSCD is a world standard and tailoring to a specific product, service overview of the SAP Tax and Revenue proven in high volume environments and regulatory domain. These best-in- Management solution with its key in the primary process. Scenarios class components bring specific components. The basic solution cater to the needs of specific groups of know-how to the table. Capgemini comes with a wealth of components: constituents or enterprises. Back-office has close relationships with SAP customer interaction solutions to handling can be unified into a core solution partners and has integrated provide access to citizens or competence across tax regimes. It is many external applications in SAP businesses. The office worker makes optimized for fast handling of large environments. use of the existing frameworks for volumes of data. SAP CRM has been financial customer care and case created to map the large array of Implementing a new solution is not a management of Customer Relations relationships between customers. It one-off project in a greenfield Management (SAP CRM). The Public can easily capture the types of situation. There is a need to integrate Services Collection and relationships between taxpayers and many existing systems in a larger, Disbursements (SAP PSCD) their tax obligations and handle the unified environment. Capgemini has component is used for high volume historical situations of developing the industrial knowledge and leading- handling of all payment obligations. events in the lifecycle of a taxpayer – edge capabilities in developing service Common functions are available for or his/her relevant environment – architectures around SAP in the public filing the tax documents, managing related to a tax obligation. sector and in many industry the taxation rules, setting up and deployments. Capgemini provides the managing the workflows. The SAP business platform can be insight from global projects, the extended with external applications necessary skills as a leader in SAP TRM is based on Public Sector designed to deliver specific integration, the capabilities and the Collections and Disbursements. It functionality and style of execution or capacity to manage the change needed makes use of the common industry can be used to leverage the embedded to allow tax agencies to stand up to capabilities that are in widespread use know-how. These solutions contain the transformational challenge. in the insurance and banking sector domain knowledge and have and on the utilities and telecom configurable parameters that allow 12
  • 13. Public Sector the way we do it Conclusion: Collaboration and Working Together In this paper Capgemini and SAP Governments are understandably have discussed the complex reluctant to increase taxes and duties. challenges facing tax agencies around The need to support legislation, the world. This complexity is driven policies, and spending requirements by: in such areas as education and healthcare, drives these agencies to • globalization, capture all appropriate revenues due • citizen demands for better service to the government and to increase and easier access, compliance. • the compliance challenge of SAP and Capgemini are working reducing the tax gap, collaboratively to help tax agencies • the complexity of technological face and overcome these challenges. change, Together, our industry expertise, Government agencies are under comprehensive solutions and proven tremendous pressure to provide results will ensure that your tax responsive services to constituents, agency is able to achieve one core while financial support for these mission: to increase revenues and services is limited or diminishing. improve taxpayer compliance. This mission is to increase revenues and improve taxpayer compliance, thus making the transition to a 21st century government agency. Tax Revenue Management - Reducing the Tax Gap 13
  • 14. Appendix Capgemini References • “Global CIO Survey 2008” (2008) • “Rising to the Challenge of Financial Transactional Services in the Public Sector”(2008) • “More for Less. A Reality for Tax Agencies” (2007) • “Compliance: Different Tax Systems, Common Challenges” (2007) • “Strategic Sourcing of IT Services” (2007) • “Capgemini’s Enterprise SOA Adoption Program for the Public Sector” (2007) SAP References • “SAP Tax and Revenue Management for Public Sector” (2008) • “The Power of Community” (2008) • “SAP Tax and Revenue Management for Public Sector” (2006) Capgemini Contacts • Ian Pretty, VP, Global Public Sector, Tax & Customs Lead ian.pretty@capgemini.com – +31 (0)30 689 9602 • Mario Halfhide, VP, Public Sector Business Development and Sales mario.halfhide@capgemini.com – + 31 (0)30 689 0380 • Renate Radon, VP, Global Alliance Executive renate.radon@capgemini.com – +49 (0)69 9515 2909 SAP Contacts For further details about the SAP TRM offering, please contact: • Gilad Gans, VP, Head of SAP Public Services Industry at SAP EMEA gilad.gans@sap.com – +33 (0)1 44 45 21 16 • Markus A. Werling, VP, Head of Business Unit Tax, Revenue and Customs Management, IBU Public Sector markus.werling@sap.com – +49 (0)62 2776 2228 • Russ LeFevre, VP, Head of Industry Solution Marketing, Public Services russ.lefevre@sap.com – +1-202-361-9757 For further details about the partnership between SAP and Capgemini at EMEA: • Guy Danon, Director, SAP EMEA Ecosystem and Partner Group guy.danon@sap.com – +33 (0)6 63 31 23 20 14
  • 15. Public Sector the way we see it Foot-Right; Foot-Document Title; Helvetica 65 medium 8pt 15
  • 16. www.capgemini.com/public About Capgemini and the Collaborative Business Experience® Capgemini, one of the and through a global delivery model world’s foremost providers called Rightshore®, which aims to offer of consulting, technology and the right resources in the right location at outsourcing services, enables its clients competitive cost. Present in 36 countries, to transform and perform through Capgemini reported 2007 global technologies. revenues of EUR 8.7 billion and employs over 83,000 people worldwide. Capgemini provides its clients with insights and capabilities that boost their More information about our services, freedom to achieve superior results offices and research is available at through a unique way of working - the www.capgemini.com/public Collaborative Business Experience® - About SAP & the Industry Value Network The Industry Value Network group for our customers to maximize their public public sector brings together leading- value through increased interoperability, edge independent software vendors, reduced total cost of ownership, and technology vendors, system integrators, improved transparency. SAP, and customers to focus on key priority business needs and opportunities With a focus on the business process of within the public sector industry. tax and revenue management, members of the Industry Value Network group for The group drives strong collaboration public sector – customers, partners, and among members to accelerate co- SAP – are collaborating to deliver innovation on SAP’s common platform innovative solutions and new, extended and to provide integrated, multivendor integration scenarios that help governments solutions and services that support key maximize taxpayer compliance and end-to-end public sector business increase revenue collection. processes for our customers. This enables Authors Ian Pretty – Capgemini Mario Halfhide – Capgemini Russ LeFevre – SAP Copyright © 2008 Capgemini. All rights reserved.