Tax System Reform - Moldovan Tax System Reform Project

The Embassy of Sweden was approached in 2009 by the Government of the Republic of Moldova to assist the State Tax Service in the reform of the fiscal administration. As a result of a preparatory process, it was assessed that the Swedish Tax Agency will assist the Government of Moldova, namely the State Tax Service (STS) in achieving its development objectives to implement a modern, fair and consistent system of tax administration and to reduce the burden on taxpayers through better fiscal administration. The project started in November, 2013. In October, 2015, the Swedish Tax Agency and the Moldovan State Tax Service requested an additional contribution to the project budget in order to deepen the work within the project components, but also to compensate the costs for the fees for travelling days, preparation of missions, assistance from the home office and follow-up, which was not originally included in the budget. Within the Taxpayer service component, it is proposed to add activities related to anti-corruption and interaction with the taxpayers. The proposed activities should improve the quality STS services for the taxpayers. The activities proposed to be implemented within the Tax audit component should improve the capacity of STS to implement the risk management approach, and to improve the enforcement function within the organization. A Long-Term Auditor, who will assist STS for six month will reinforce the institutional capacity in the process of shifting from the control approach to the audit approach in the fiscal supervision activity. The assistance for the unification of the STS structure, proposed to be provided within the Management component should help solving the problem of non-uniform implementation of new business procedures. The initial budget was 16 600 000 SEK for the period 2013-10-01 - 2016-10-31 and the proposed additional contribution is 7 450 369 SEK.