Enhancing interdepartmental tax cooperation can primarily be achieved through collaboration among tax internal departments, coordination among government functional departments, and international or regional exchanges and cooperation.
2.1 Collaboration Among Internal Tax Departments
Collaboration among internal tax department includes cross - regional handling of certain tax - related services within specific areas (e.g. economic zones, collaborative entities) , establishing a "administration community" ; enabling broader cross - regional processing of tax matters (offline coordination, online coordination, work order transfers) through electronic tax filing and other online channels, forming a "service community" ; and sharing relevant administration data and taxpayer credit information to comprehensively enhance tax risk control, building an "information community." As collaboration deepens, the scope of services and regions can be gradually expanded.
▲Enhance laws and regulations or administrative rules: Establish regulations specifically for cross - regional business cooperation and data sharing, clearly outlining the procedures for handling matters, data usage rules, scope of responsibilities and authorities, and accountability mechanisms to provide a solid legal foundation for cross - departmental collaboration.
▲Enhance technical support: Increase investment in information technology resources, develop efficient and stable information systems, and ensure the security and accuracy of data transmission. Promote the application of emerging technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence, explore their potential value in tax administration, and enhance automated processing capabilities. Conduct regular technical training to enhance staff’s technical application skills and information security awareness. Through multi - departmental collaboration within the tax authorities, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Federal Tax Authority has efficiently resolved various issues.
2.2 Enhancing Cooperation with Other Government Agencies
Explore the opportunity of implementing business collaboration between different government departments, starting with common matters. Integrate key tax - related services into the government’s official website, enabling taxpayers to handle multi - departmental transactions through a single platform. This facilitates real - time information sharing and significantly reduces the time and costs for businesses and individuals to complete related procedures. Strengthen close collaboration among tax authorities, public security, banks, customs, social security, natural resources, and other departments to share information and data, standardize tax procedures, reduce redundant document submissions by taxpayers when handling tax - related matters or claiming tax benefits, improve administrative efficiency, promote fair competition, and strive to minimize interference with market entities while maximizing regulatory effectiveness. China’s “one - stop government services” initiative focuses on eliminating administrative bottlenecks and reducing institutional transaction costs. It tackles the most critical issues, starts with fundamental steps, and addresses the most evident shortcomings. Through cross - departmental collaboration, it enhances public satisfaction, improves government service efficiency, and promotes high - quality development.
2.3 Establishing or Participating in International and Regional Cooperative Organizations
In interdepartmental collaboration, establishing dedicated cooperative teams is an effective way to break down barriers and unite efforts. Collaborative organizations can be temporary task forces focused on specific project goals, bringing together key personnel from various departments, or they can be permanent entities responsible for coordinating long - term cross - regional and cross - sector initiatives. They may also operate as virtual teams, leveraging digital platforms for flexible collaboration. To establish collaborative organizations, tax authorities can take the lead and partner with multiple institutions such as finance, customs, and banks. These organizations should draft charters to clarify members’ responsibilities, collaboration mechanisms, decision - making rules, and international data protection standards. They may also create data - sharing platforms and implement regular joint meeting systems to facilitate information exchange and coordinate decision - making. Additionally, specialized task forces should be formed to address specific areas, such as combating tax - related crimes and optimizing the tax business environment.
▲Define international and regional cooperation standards and rules: Specify the ownership, usage rights, sharing scope, application scenarios, and security responsibilities of data, along with requirements such as data encryption, access control and audit trails. Implement classified and tiered data usage.
▲Hold regular joint meetings: Regular joint meetings are essential for continuous optimization and deep collaboration within the organization. These meetings can be scheduled annually, quarterly, or at other fixed intervals to facilitate progress updates, innovation sharing, and collective problem - solving. Ad hoc meetings may be convened as needed for urgent matters.
UAE: Strengthening and Optimizing Taxpayer Service Through Interdepartmental Coordination
To enhance and optimize taxpayer service, the UAE Federal Tax Authority' s Tax Policy and International Relations Department regularly holds coordination meetings with the Taxpayer Services Department and the Audit Department. These meetings focus on addressing taxpayer compliance challenges and exploring ways to provide internal stakeholders as well as taxpayers with policy clarifications and other decision-support services. Providing targeted guidance and education through cooperation and mutual understanding reduces filing errors, improves time efficiency, and enhances taxpayer self-compliance. The UAE Federal Tax Authority' s Taxpayer Services Department also engages in interdepartmental collaboration with other departments, such as the Tax Operations Department to promptly and efficiently address various issues and concerns raised by taxpayers (such as technical problems with EmaraTax and urgent tax return related requests for assistance) . This helps resolve key taxpayer compliance issues before the statutory deadlines under tax laws and contributes to reduced errors when meeting their tax obligations.
China: Cross-departmental Collaboration Enhances Efficient One-Stop Government Services
In December 2016, China’s Zhejiang Province introduced the “One Visit at Most” reform, aiming to enable citizens to complete government procedures in a single visit, or even without any visit, provided that all required documents are submitted and legal conditions are met, from application acceptance to final decision and outcome delivery. In 2018, “One Visit at Most” was included in the Chinese central government’s “Government Work Report” and promoted nationwide as a reform initiative. In subsequent reform practices, Shanghai, China, introduced upgraded versions of reforms such as “one - stop government services” . In 2024, “one - stop government services” was included in the State Council’s “Government Work Report” . “One - stop government services” is a key initiative to optimize government services and enhance administrative efficiency. By strengthening overall planning, innovating taxpayer service models, and promoting integrated online - offline development, it achieves diversified service methods, optimized processes, minimized documentation, and reduced costs. Through breaking down departmental data barriers, restructuring business processes, and enhancing technological empowerment, it maximizes convenience for businesses and citizens while stimulating momentum of economic and social development.
(a) Policy Background With the rapid economic and social development, businesses and the public have higher expectations for the efficiency and quality of government services. In the past, handling a single matter often required visiting multiple departments, submitting numerous documents, and going through multiple steps, consuming considerable time and effort. To address these pain points, the Chinese government proposed consolidating matters that previously required visits to multiple departments into “a single process” , achieving a shift from “running between multiple departments” to “efficient one - stop service” .
(b) Key Tasks
●Strengthen channel development to enable “one - stop offline services” , “one - stop online government services” , and “immediate response” to enterprises and public enquiries.
●Deepen model innovation by promoting integrated processing of related matters, commitment - based handling of non - essential items, cross - regional coordination, and policy services without application requirements.
●Strengthen digital empowerment by utilizing the national integrated government service platform as the central hub for both online and offline services, enhancing the efficiency of government data sharing, and consistently applying new technologies throughout the entire process.
●Expand coverage and enhance effectiveness by strengthening support and agency capabilities, enriching the supply of public services, and expanding the content of value - added services.
●Strengthen the work foundation by enhancing the government service standards and operational systems, and bolstering institutional support for government services.
(c) Highlights of Innovations
(i) Establishing an Integrated Government Services Ecosystem Leveraging the “National Government Service Platform” as the central hub, a “six unified standards” technical framework has been established — unified government service portal, unified affairs management, identity authentication, electronic seals, electronic certificates, and data sharing. For example, China’s Guangdong Province has launched the “Yueshengshi” mobile app, which integrates over 2,000 services. Using facial recognition technology for identity verification, it enables users to handle high - frequency matters like social security and provident fund “at their fingertips” . The app serves over 150 million users with an average of 2 million daily visits. This technological integration breaks down the “information silos” in traditional government services, enabling cross - departmental data sharing.
(ii) Focusing on Scenario - Based Services Throughout all Life Cycle Focused on the high - frequency needs of enterprises and the public, we have developed integrated “one - stop” services. For example, the “one - stop service” for newborns integrates 9 procedures, including birth certificates, household registration, and medical insurance enrollment and etc. After parents submit materials through an online platform, all formalities are handled internally by government departments, achieving “single application, one - window completion” . The “One - Stop Enterprise Deregistration” initiative consolidates data from tax authorities, market regulation authorities, the human resources and social security authorities, and other authorities through the “one - stop online government services” platform, reducing processing time from several months to under 10 business days while leveraging blockchain technology to ensure secure and traceable data. This “scenario - based” service model brings government services closer to actual needs.
(iii) Improving Comprehensive International Service Standards A unified service platform has been established to provide mutual convenience for both “bring in” and “go global” . For example, Shanghai, China, has developed the “Shanghai International Service Portal” , providing convenient services for foreigners in areas such as visas, immigration, transportation, and healthcare, enabling direct online processing of service requests and fostering an international tax business environment.
(d) The Implementation of “One - Stop Government Services” in the Tax Sector
●“One - Stop” Service for New Businesses, Helping Enterprises Take Their First Step Toward Growth China’s tax authorities have actively responded to the call for “one - stop government services” , providing comprehensive and convenient services for new businesses. For example, the tax authorities in China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region collaborated with local government agencies to organize the “First Lesson for New Businesses” , offering a streamlined “one - stop” joint service for offline business registration. Taxpayers only need to submit an application at one window to complete a series of tax - related matters, including tax registration confirmation and tax category determination, providing a one - stop service solution. This “one - stop” joint service model significantly reduces the time required for business registration, lowers institutional transaction costs for enterprises, and enhances market vitality.
●“One - Window” Matter Handling for Tax - related Real Estate Transactions, Enhancing Public Experience Real estate transactions involve multiple departments and complex procedures. To simplify the process and improve efficiency, tax authorities in many regions of China have strengthened collaboration with real estate registration centers and other departments, enabling “one - window” matter handling for tax - related real estate transactions. For example, the tax authorities in Yinchuan City, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, China, have partnered with the Real Estate Registration Center and the Housing Property Transaction Management Center to establish a standardized, regulated, and intelligent “one - stop service” platform featuring “single - window acceptance and integrated processing” . By integrating the new housing declaration function into the “Internet + Real Estate Registration” system, tax officials can directly access housing declaration information when processing tax - related procedures for new properties. This replaces the previous “physical transfer” of paper tax payment documents collected by tax authorities with the “automatic retrieval” of electronic records within the system. Taxpayers can complete all procedures, including personal information confirmation, housing registration pre - approval, tax calculation declaration, tax payment, tax clearance certificate issuance, and approval, at a single window, with the entire process accelerated by 60%.
●Jointly Establish a “Handshake Zone” to Streamline Business Deregistration as a Unified Service The tax authorities in Shanghai, China, have partnered with the Market Supervision Administration and Administrative Service Center to establish a “Joint Business Deregistration Window” , extending the "one - window" matter handling approach to business deregistration and enabling cross - department “parallel processing” , thereby further improving taxpayer satisfaction and their sense of fulfillment. Under the previous process, enterprises had to complete tax liquidation and deregistration before deregistering with the market supervision department, or use the “One - Window Business Deregistration Platform” for simultaneous processing. However, they still had to make multiple trips between different departments. The tax authorities have established a “Joint Business Deregistration Window” in taxpayer service halls. For businesses eligible for immediate tax clearance deregistration, after completing offline tax clearance procedures, they can achieve cross - department processing at a single window, directly proceeding with market entity deregistration. This allows taxpayers to complete both tax and market supervision deregistration matters in one go, effectively implementing the “one - stop service” for efficient deregistration. “One - stop government services” utilizes big data and artificial intelligence to redesign service processes and optimize resource allocation, breaking down departmental barriers and establishing data - sharing and joint processing mechanisms. This effectively resolves the common issues of “running between multiple departments and repeatedly submitting materials” . In the future, China’s tax authorities will continue to deepen the reform of “one - stop government services” , explore new models such as “smart processing” and “seamless processing” , strengthen international cooperation, share China’s experience, and jointly promote the optimization of the global tax business environment.
▲Establish a cross - departmental leadership structure: To ensure effective coordination of tasks, a joint task force comprising various functional departments has been formed. This initiative provides comprehensive support for interdepartmental collaboration across organizational structure, division of responsibilities, plan development, business requirement documentation, system development, and operations and maintenance. It clarifies the organizational framework, defines roles and responsibilities, and enables regular progress updates. Uruguay has improved administrative efficiency, reduced investment costs, and enhanced the business environment by establishing a one - stop investment service platform.
Uruguay Launches One-Stop Investment Service Platform
The Uruguay One-Stop Investment Service Platform was launched in May 2023 to streamline investment procedures, reduce processing times for various services, lower investment costs, strengthen inter-agency collaboration, facilitate information sharing, and improve administrative efficiency. By establishing a unified electronic platform, all procedures are centrally managed and information is shared among relevant agencies, ensuring investors can access all readily available information through the platform. This reduces costs, saves time, and enhances transparency, predictability, and security. Meanwhile, against the backdrop of Uruguay’s tax authorities actively promoting digital tax reforms, the one-stop investment service platform has established close collaboration with the tax authorities to automate processes without taxpayers’ intervention. The tax authorities make full use of existing data to simplify tax credit procedures for investment projects, reducing the threshold for taxpayers to benefit from tax incentives. Under the premise of ensuring information security and obtaining consent from information owners, tax authorities leverage their data to simplify investment procedures, facilitating taxation and investment.
▲Building an information-sharing platform: Integrate multi-dimensional data resources from government, enterprises, and society to build a shared platform that incorporates data collection, exchange, analysis, and application. Establish unified data submission standards, security protection mechanisms, and cross-domain collaboration rules to facilitate real-time information flow and in-depth sharing among departments. By securely sharing data through exchange channels, departments can quickly and accurately share taxpayer information, significantly improving transparency and work efficiency. Facing challenges such as accurately determining tax bases, increasing tax revenue, and improving taxpayer compliance rates, the Indonesian tax authorities launched the Coretax project in 2025. This initiative not only enhanced tax administration efficiency but also achieved data integration between the tax authorities and multiple government departments, financial institutions, and regulatory bodies. It has played a positive role in optimizing tax administration processes, improving taxpayer compliance, strengthening transparency, and fostering trust between taxpayers and tax authorities.
Indonesia Reforms Tax Management Information System for Cross-Department Information Sharing
(a) Information Technology Upgrade and Transformation The Coretax project redesigned and streamlined tax administration processes through IT upgrades and the establishment of an integrated tax system and database, consolidating 128 previously separate systems into a unified tax application system. Previously relying on paper-based filings and manual processing, the Coretax project introduced electronic filing and payment features, enabling taxpayers to submit tax return filing and make payments online. Currently, 21 electronic business processes services are available.
(b) Establishing a Taxpayer Portal Platform The Coretax project integrates features such as taxpayer registration, tax return filing, tax payment, taxpayer accounting management, tax consultation, and tax administrative services into a taxpayer portal platform. It provides taxpayers with features including obtaining taxpayer identification numbers, pre-filling withholding data for tax returns, automatic tax payment and refund, application and tracking progress for administrative services request, and online information and consultation support. This helps taxpayers solve tax-related problems, enhances their service experience, and effectively improves the speed and accuracy of tax services.
(c) Enhanced Risk Management Capabilities The Coretax project collects data from both internal tax authorities and external parties to monitor taxpayers' declaration information and tax payments in real time. By establishing risk models, potential tax risks and anomalies are identified, helping tax authorities detect potential tax risks. For taxpayers, detected risks help ensure the proper fulfillment of tax obligations, fairness and transparency in tax administration, reducing disputes, and enhancing taxpayer compliance.
(d) Facilitating Cross-Departmental Information Sharing The Coretax project has established data connections with multiple government agencies, financial institutions, and regulatory bodies, enabling data sharing and operational collaboration. Tax authorities can access data such as corporate import-export records, financial account and asset information, and unified taxpayer identification number to create comprehensive multi-dimensional taxpayer profiling. This enables the accurate identification and targeting of illegal activities like non-disclosed declarations, mis-reported filings, and fraudulent registrations, thereby enhancing taxpayer compliance and improving national governance standards.
The Coretax project has not only introduced modern technological solutions to Indonesia's tax administration, manifesting the immense potential of digital tax systems in improving efficiency and service quality, but also provided taxpayers with more convenient, transparent, and efficient taxpayer services. As the Coretax system continues to improve, its role in tax administration, taxpayer service, risk management, and other areas will become increasingly prominent, further promoting innovation and development in Indonesia's tax administration.
▲Multi-department joint operations: Establish physical comprehensive administrative service centers where various departments operate together, providing public services such as company registration, tax registration, and employee social security enrollment. The co-working model not only simplifies procedures but also enhances coordination throuah a unified administrative hub, By integrating resources and service processes. it provides one-stop solutions to citizen needs, fully leveraging the flexibility and resource-sharing benefits of co-working.
▲Optimize Workflows: Standardize workflows and service standards across relevant departments, streamline procedures, eliminate redundant steps, and reduce coordination costs. Establish a regular communication mechanism to facilitate exchanges and cooperation between departments and promptly resolve issues encountered during collaboration.
▲Establish a Monitoring and Evaluation System: Create an independent oversight body to assess the effectiveness of interdepartmental collaboration and adijust strategies as needed. Conduct regular performance evaluations to compare the gap between objectives and actual results, identify existing issues, implement timely corrections, and continuously improve cross-departmental collaboration mechanisms.
▲Increase Public Outreach: Promote the benefits of interdepartmental collaboration through various channels (e.g.official websites, social media, in-person seminars, and etc,) to enhance taxpayer understanding and support for new policies. Encourage public participation, gather feedback, and continuously refine existing measures to better meet taxpayers’ needs. Cross-departmental collaboration is essential for improving taxpayer service quality. The inland Revenue Board of Malaysia (lRBM) actively explores interdepartmental collaboration to streamline workflows and enhance efficiency.
Malaysia:Strengthening Collaborative Networks through Interdepartmental Collaboration
(a) IRBM Has Engagement Programs with Federal, State and Statutory Bodies This engagement programs aims to establish relationships, expand cooperation networks and serve as a platform and medium for the effective delivery of the latest tax information. The main objective is to create strategic partnerships in the form of administration, information sharing and other current and future engagements to strengthen tax education and taxpayer compliance.
(b) Cooperation with Financial Institutions IRBM collaborates with local banks to streamline payment processes, making it easier for taxpayers to pay taxes through bank channels.
(c) Cooperation with MyDigital ID IRBM and MyDigital ID Sdn. Bhd. have signed an agreement to integrate MyDigital ID into LHDN' s MyTax and MySTR platforms, which aims to strengthen national digitalization efforts and enhance access to government services.