Building trust and compliance through taxpayer education: lessons from ATI partner countries

On 1 July, the ATI webinar Taxpayer Education in ATI partner countries: Foundation and Practice took place virtually in English and French, gathering around 70 participants. Moderated by Cuba Houghton, Global Research Coordinator, GAPP, International Budget Partnership (IBP), the session was designed to lay the groundwork for the understanding of taxpayer education that will underpin Workstream 3 of the ATI Consultative Group 4, to facilitate peer-exchange on the taxpayer engagement strategies used by governments and other stakeholders, and to reflect on what works in different contexts. An opening live poll asked participants to rank three taxpayer-education strategies by priority: communicating (awareness-raising through campaigns and media) came first, ahead of practical assistance (filing support and problem resolution), with teaching (schools, trainings, structured workshops) placed third. It provided a useful backdrop to a discussion in which all three approaches featured prominently. 

Why taxpayer education matters: Evidence from the OECD 

Joseph Stead, Senior Policy Analyst at the OECD Centre for Tax Policy and Administration, opened with a scene-setting presentation drawing on several OECD studies, most prominently the second edition of Building Tax Culture, Compliance and Citizenship (2021), which surveyed 140 taxpayer-education initiatives across 59 countries and Public Trust in Tax 2025: Asia and Beyond, based on responses from more than 12,000 individuals in 29 countries. A central finding is that understanding shapes trust: taxpayers who find official communications hard to understand are four times more likely to distrust the tax authority. 

Stead highlighted several perception patterns worth reflecting on: family and friends are among the most trusted sources of tax information — a strategic point to be noted by tax authorities and governments when designing communication approaches. In general, there is strong popular support for teaching tax in schools. With a lack of tax education among the primary drivers of non-compliance, he set out three reasons taxpayer education matters: 

1. Perception and understanding of the tax system appear to affect willingness to pay;
2. Voluntary compliance requires that people actually know what to do and
3. Absent good information, tax can become a victim of fake news spread by actors with competing agendas.

The OECD groups the 140 surveyed initiatives into three main approaches. Teaching tax (44% of initiatives) uses more traditional methods and depends on repeated rather than one-off exposure, but is resource-intensive. Communicating tax (36%) works at a higher level to strengthen the relationship between taxpayers and administrations and increasingly uses behavioural “nudges” — though these remain experimental and do not work on everyone. Stead cited two case studies: calendars sent to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia, where deterrence and public-good framings had different effects at the margin, and letters to delinquent taxpayers in Guatemala, where a deterrence framing had the largest impact on filing rates and a public-good framing on payment rates. Both underline that approaches must be tested locally, and that deterrence framing should be used carefully, as it can undermine the authority’s legitimacy over the long term. The third approach, assisting with tax (20%), is learning by doing: Guiding taxpayers through the practicalities, especially with new digital tools. Across all three, common challenges recur: knowing the audience, working with partners to scale, sustaining what is a long-term effort against short-term budgets, getting the timing right, and the persistent shortage of robust evaluation. 

Country experiences

Imiangaly Randrianomanana, Head of Taxpayer Services and Communication at Madagascar’s Directorate General of Taxes, described a multi-level strategy built on making tax visible and demonstrating its usefulness to different groups. The “Harenasoa” programme builds familiarity with tax from a young age, while the “Hainao ve?” (“Did you know?”) initiative uses short, animated videos and educational leaflets aimed at small taxpayers, informal workers, students, and young entrepreneurs which is particularly important in contexts where people rely more on social media than traditional media. A third initiative, “Anjara hetrako” (“My share of tax”), simplifies formalisation for small and micro players through mobile-money payment. The campaigns registered more than 43,000 new taxpayers and collected over MGA 688 million (roughly USD 145,000). Randrianomanana noted that impact is hard to measure quantitatively given other confounding factors, but qualitative improvements are clear: taxpayers increasingly seek information directly from the administration rather than through informal intermediaries, and a heavily used call centre has been established.

Corazon Aquino Ohola, Assistant Manager for Content Simplification, Civic Education and Tax Outreach at the Kenya Revenue Authority, emphasised simplicity, summarised in the principle that what you put out is what you get back. Recognising that taxpayers learn differently and that the population must be segmented — with women, start-ups, and young people as recent key groups, the KRA focuses on getting language and visuals right, making information easy to find in the “age of ChatGPT,” and working with influencers to reach the right audiences. Young people are treated as catalysts for spreading a positive tax message, a standing outreach session runs every Thursday, and materials are disseminated in Kenya’s many national languages. The results include a strong uptake of filing via WhatsApp, improved accuracy, greater engagement on social media, and additional revenue mobilised from newly registered taxpayers.

Jules Tapsoba, Executive Secretary of the West African Tax Administration Forum (WATAF), set out a shift in perspective: compliance cannot be achieved through enforcement alone, and taxpayer education is not merely about informing people of their obligations but about building trust, since taxpayers are more likely to comply with an authority they trust. WATAF has put in place tools to bring regional and private-sector expertise together where they communicate tax laws in simple terms and establish regular dialogue, help taxpayers understand the role of taxes in a functioning society, and promote peer learning and policy dialogue. His overarching message was that taxpayer education should be treated as an investment rather than a cost.

Open discussion

The discussion returned repeatedly to the relationship between taxation and public services. Participants observed that many taxpayers do not separate the question of compliance from that of service delivery, and that tax apathy often stems from a weak or invisible link between taxes paid and benefits received since taxes are being experienced as something imposed. Responses from the panel pointed to embedding tax in school curricula and e-learning platforms, and to going out into communities to show people concretely what revenues have funded, which has slowly helped reduce apathy. On the evidence linking understanding to willingness to pay, it was noted that the OECD has applied econometric techniques to Afrobarometer data and, in a soon to be published follow-up work, found the relationship holds. A further question raised how countries address perceptions of inequity, the sense that some sectors bear a disproportionate burden while a large informal sector remains outside the net, underscored that perceived fairness is as central to compliance as understanding. Peer learning was a recurring thread, with plans noted to bring practitioners together to exchange experiences, building on the shared language and common understanding evident throughout the session.

Closing and next steps

The session reinforced a shared message across all speakers: taxpayer education is a long-term investment in trust, most effective when tailored to its audience, embedded across communication, assistance, and teaching, and consistently evaluated.

In closing, the ATI Secretariat outlined next steps, including plans to establish a virtual Community of Practice on Transparency and Communication in Tax Administrations. The Community of Practice aims at strengthening transparency and communication within the tax administrations of ATI partner countries. It will provide a structured platform for peer exchange among communicators, IT specialists, and other professionals engaged in transparency and communication functions, supporting countries in improving taxpayer engagement and fostering voluntary compliance.