Review article
A Comparative Analysis of Cost-Effectiveness of Tax Administration in Croatia and OECD Countries
Vjekoslav Bratić
orcid.org/0000-0002-9295-0286
; assistant at the Institute of Public Finances, Zagreb
Hrvoje Šimović
orcid.org/0000-0002-4040-0899
; assistant professor at the Faculty of Economy, University of Zagreb
Abstract
Public revenues in the form of taxes and duties are in most countries levied by tax authorities. During the process of collecting revenues, tax authorities have certain expenses, usually called tax administration expenses. The analyses of cost-effectiveness of tax administrations are becoming increasingly intensive around the world, with the OECD countries leading the way. However, the analysis of cost-effectiveness of tax authorities in different countries is characterised
by numerous methodological, technical, and essential problems, which is visible when their comparative analysis is performed. Croatian tax authorities consist of Tax Administration, Financial Police, and Customs Administration, which together collect public revenues. The authors have made two separate analyses – the operation and efficiency of the Croatian Tax Administration between 2000 and 2007 and the effectiveness of all the Croatian tax authorities in the same period. Cost-effectiveness can be seen as spending as little as possible and simultaneously collecting as high revenues as possible. The key effectiveness indicators had shown increasing nominal effectiveness of the Croatian Tax Administration and tax authorities until 2006. However, the trend was completely overturned by the end of 2007. A comparative analysis has shown that the Croatian tax authorities were in average the least effective in comparison with the analysed OECD member states, both developed countries and countries in transition. Nevertheless,
the Croatian Tax Administration turned out to be relatively effective.
Such results suggest that Tax Administration and tax authorities must insist on the increased effectiveness during the following period, primarily through the reduction of total administrative costs.
Keywords
tax administration; tax authorities; cost-effectiveness; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
135496
URI
Publication date:
8.3.2010.
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