Tax officials' attitudes and perceptions: performance indicators and the efficiency of tax collection

Abstract

The attitudes and perceptions of tax officials can have important effects on the efficiency and effectiveness of tax administration but is often relatively neglected in the development of performance indicators. This paper therefore examines these issues. It also reports the results of a new survey of Thai excise officials conducted with the kind permission of the Thai Excise Department in 2005. Questionnaires were sent to 1,175 excise staff and, after reminders, achieved a final response rate of 47.7 per cent. This was followed up by a second survey consisting of 25 semi-structured interviews with excise staff and also entrepreneurs and tax advisers. Preliminary results derived by January 2006 revealed a wide range of positive attitudes but there are also areas where tax officials do not feel so positive and this might impact on the work of the organisation. However the relationship between attitudes and productivity is not a simple one. The region with the highest productivity had the lowest recorded rates of satisfaction among the staff and regions with low productivity had relatively high rates of satisfaction.