Can the efficiency of the Croatian tax authorities be improved

Abstract

The goals of this article were to determine whether the efficiency of tax authorities in Croatia improved over the period 1997-2012 and to identify how their efficiency can be improved in the future. According to our research the administrative costs of taxation in Croatia, as a percentage of GDP, decreased slightly over the past fifteen years but still remain above the EU average. Thus, there is a need to reduce the administrative costs of taxation, first by identifying and abolishing nuisance taxes that raise very little revenue and have high administrative costs. Second, special attention should be devoted to analysing and reducing the service expenses of tax authorities (especially IT expenses and expenses for telephone, mail and transportation services). The main problem related to research into administrative costs in Croatia over a longer period is the lack of relevant and reliable data, and hence the Croatian tax authorities should collect more data and release them to the public.