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Tax and customs

Tax and customs are among the most important pillars of a fair society. They influence a country’s global competitiveness and provide the funds needed for the state to operate.

Establishing trust between citizens, companies and government helps to increase the level of tax compliance. This is enabled by transparency, bearing down on non-compliance, and protecting the vulnerable. Governments must also facilitate frictionless trade between nation states, while managing risks at borders.

At Capgemini, we make it easy for citizens to pay their taxes. We work with more than 30 global tax agencies, helping them bring to life their tax and customs strategies, implement policy, and comply with data regulations. We use advances in digital, AI, data, and automation to transform tax administration, while addressing ethical challenges in the use of new technology, such as machine learning, 5G networks, and robotics.

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What we do

A shift in digital expectations means that tax authorities must invest in accessible, omni-channel digital services for all parts of society.

Citizens understand tax and its importance in underpinning a nation’s wealth and contributing to a fairer society. Tax authorities need to turn that understanding into compliance by offering everyone a transparent and frictionless way to pay the taxes they owe.

We design user-centric digital services with a once-only principle, supporting social value through increased levels of accessibility. Real-time data enables tax decisions to be made based on transactions as they take place.

We’re also helping to improve the efficiency of face-to-face interactions between taxpayers and authorities. We use data and automation to transform the experience of agents through augmented working that blends technology and human expertise.

As public sector agencies embrace a data-led and digital first operating model, a move away from legacy infrastructure to cloud platforms is inevitable.

Although legacy IT infrastructure continues to be part of government IT landscapes, there is growing recognition that aging systems must be brought up to date to manage increasing workloads sustainably and efficiently.

We work with tax authorities globally to build the business case for legacy modernization, and plan and support the transition to modern cloud-based architectures.

We operate agile, scalable cloud environments that enable tax authorities to use data more effectively, lower costs, simplify their IT estates, and support new services. Without this transition, it would be impossible to meet surges in demand – such as that experienced during the global pandemic – and for policy makers to launch innovative digital services.

As citizens and businesses share increasing volumes of digital and physical data, authorities must safeguard personal information and prevent its unethical use.

Tax authorities are taking advantage of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, using digital tools such as AI, machine-learning and automation to capture and analyze data. However, while data insights will help to shape hyper-personalized tax services, tax authorities must be transparent and unbiased about how that data informs decisions.

We are supporting the shift in emphasis of data ownership toward self-sovereignty – where the citizen is responsible for their data. In parallel, we help tax authorities interact with new platform economies by building secure data exchange with industries to ensure that the right data is collected and to smooth citizens’ payment journeys.

Tax and customs fraud costs governments billions every year and is a growing problem both nationally and internationally.

Tax agencies are committed to raising revenue fairly, and catching those who try to cheat the system. But fraudsters continuously pursue new methods of tax evasion.

We combat tax fraud with advanced data platforms that enable the secure exchange of information between authorities in different countries. We’re working with intergovernmental organizations to develop an international response. We also use data and AI to detect anomalies in both tax and customs duties, helping authorities track down the non-compliant, while identifying the vulnerable, such as businesses unable to pay their tax, or people who are unaware of the allowances they’re entitled to.

Trade is essential for economic prosperity. Nations benefit most when trade is frictionless across borders and draws on innovations from other industries.

In a world of open borders built on ease of trade and transport, the face of customs has changed substantially. As economies work to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s never been more important to facilitate frictionless trade. However, customs must also prevent product piracy, smuggling, illegal employment, and fraud in trade, while protecting consumers.

Ease on the one hand and protection on the other demand intelligent processes. These increasingly draw on global supply chain initiatives, predictive AI, and well-trained staff augmented by intelligent IT. Our state-of-the-art solutions for declarations, risk and security, as well as digital services, embed this intelligence to support the customs transformation of key global economies.

Client stories

Expert perspectives

Public sector

2022 Key Trends in Tax

Simon Pearson
Feb 18, 2022

Meet our experts

Simon Pearson

VP, Capgemini, Global Tax and Trade Cluster Leader
“While tax brings essential funds to economies, compliance depends on the perception of tax justice. Authorities must ensure fairness by closing the tax gap and bearing down on the non-compliant. This is both a national and cross-border issue and tax authorities are recognizing the value of data sharing and tackling new forms of evasion with innovative detection capabilities.”

Ulrich Bonfig

Account Executive Ministry of Finance, Germany
“Tax administration, like the banking industry, has been a pioneer in applying IT. Having invested heavily in technology, the challenge today is both to maintain and modernize huge legacy IT landscapes and drive innovation to keep pace with demands posed by digitalization and globalization.”