Challenges and opportunities of digitalisation

The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) has published a discussion paper on the challenges and opportunities presented by technology and tax simplification.

The document  Technology review: a vision for tax simplicity explores what can be done to empower taxpayers to understand their tax and obligations while benefiting from advances in technology. It highlights for example that as taxpayers rely more on software and technology this may reduce their understanding of how much tax they should pay and why. See Andrew Hubbard’s column ‘This week’ (Taxation 24 January 2019 page 5).

The OTS believes that as technology develops the government should:

• consider how to mitigate the risk that taxpayers lose sight of their obligations through the use of technology;
• continue to review private sector technological innovation to enhance the experience of the taxpayer in managing their tax affairs;
• consider the potential for applying new technology in engaging...