The report covers performance, best practice and trends in 56 tax administrations and highlights problems with improving compliance rates while reducing costs and the challenge to improve and simplify taxpayer services, while making non-compliance harder.

Reflecting economic and fiscal pressures, the report highlights cost cutting and staff cuts are required in many jurisdictions, with tax departments, particularly in the UK, US and Australia, ‘requiring significant downsizing’, adding that this was leading to the ‘practice of using a variety of third parties to deliver critical administrative functions and support, eg, IT services, is extensive and appears to be growing’.

Although the report primarily covers legislation introduced in 2013, it gives a synopsis of law changes in various jurisdictions designed to clamp down on tax abuse.