Tax Literacy – Communications Best Practice Guide
A guide to improving communications on tax and tax policy. It sets out a systematic approach to designing, implementing and evaluating tax communications.
6. International best practice
We commissioned external research into best practice internationally in tax communications and public engagement. The full report by Ernst and Young is available here. A summary of what we asked, some examples of international best practice and their recommendations is set out below.
The question we asked Ernst and Young was:
- What best practice approaches and methods, for tax engagement and communication, can Scotland use to engage more effectively to maximise awareness of tax policy and key tax policy concepts?
The research included a comprehensive literature review and an investigation of approaches taken by various countries to communicate and engage on tax policy.
The comparator countries used were:
- Australia and the Australian Tax Office (ATO)
- California
- Canada and the Canadian Revenue Authority (CRA)
- Estonia and the Estonian Tax and Customs Board (ETCB)
- Germany
- New Zealand and the Inland Revenue Department (IRD)
- Norway and the Norwegian Tax Administration (NTA)
From this, a broad approach to effective communications was identified as well as examples from the comparator countries.