From 19th to 23rd January 2015, within the framework of the EUROsociAL II programme of the European Commission, technical assistance was provided to Costa Rica for the creation of a tax call centre The activity is part of the "Promotion of voluntary compliance with tax obligations" action of the Public Finance area, in which the Spanish State Tax Agency (AEAT) is acting as the operational partner.

Currently taxpayer enquiries are not centralised and are instead channelled to different offices of the Ministry of Finance through the territorial tax agencies. This not only generates user dissatisfaction but also legal insecurity due to a lack of uniform criteria for responses, as the same question put to different civil servants often receives different replies. All of this makes proper compliance with tax obligations more difficult, generates disputes in control processes and, lastly, affects the image of the institution.

In this context, improving the taxpayer information and assistance services provided by the Directorate General of Taxation (DGT) is becoming increasingly necessary due to its impact on promotion of voluntary compliance with tax obligations to increase tax collection at the lowest possible cost to the institution and taxpayers. 

The objective of the technical assistance was to support DGT managers and specialists in defining a strategy for implementing a Call Centre, taking into account the services to be offered as well as the organisational structure, operating regulation, and the staff and management profiles of the centre. This will allow the DGT to improve and expand the range of services it offers through the Tax Information Centre (CIT).

The experts that provided the technical assistance were María Soledad Fernández Herranz  and María José Portilla López, of the Tax Management Department of Spain's AEAT.

The ultimate objective of this action of the EUROsociAL II cooperation programme of the European Union is to support the Costa Rican tax agency in implementing a tax call centre that will, on the one hand, enable centralisation of the enquiries currently received in different offices and agencies and, on the other, standardise the responses given to taxpayers so that these are consistent regardless of the agency or civil servant responding.