Cooperative Tax Compliance — A Path to Fiscal Sustainability?

Abstract

The idea of cooperative tax compliance promotes a partnership relationship between the tax authority and taxpayers, aiming to improve tax compliance. Fair, efficient, and sustainable taxation is central in delivering a greener and more digital world, especially in the recovery process from the fallout of the COVID-19 crisis. Based on the methodology of structured interviews, the paper explores the perception of taxpayers and the tax authority participating in the Slovenian cooperative compliance programme.

The results revealed the attitude towards internal tax control mechanisms, the relationship between stakeholders, the advantages and disadvantages of the programme, and the perception of tax inspections on both sides of this relationship. Based on those, the challenges of internal control mechanism implementation and constant improvement as well as the tax authority experts’ competences were exposed as the most important inhibitory factors of the programme. Additionally, the paper highlights the recommendations for collaboration improvement and an increased number of taxpayers entering the status in the future.