It is no secret that in recent times the Tax Agency has undertaken a series of measures aimed at facilitating not only the fulfillment by citizens of their tax obligations but also the exercise of their rights.

These measures are not random, but are part of the Agency's strategic objectives. The Tax Agency's Strategic Plan 2020-2023 dedicates its Chapter V to the Ethical Infrastructure and Governance, and is aligned with its fundamental mission of implementing the state tax and customs system.

The ethical commitment of the AEAT, reflected in the resolution of the Presidency of June 17, 2021, by which the Ethics Advisory Commission was created, with an advisory and consultative nature in matters of ethical infrastructure and corporate conduct and integrity, culminated with the approval of an Ethical Code prepared by said Commission and approved by Resolution of the Presidency of the Tax Agency of December 22, 2022, and which offers the organization and its members common values and models of conduct appropriate to them; Precisely one of the principles on which it is based, the fourth, is that of the centrality of the citizen, which is stated as follows: “The Tax Agency staff will place the citizens they serve at the permanent centre of their attention, directing their actions towards quality public service, while respecting the rules of confidentiality and transparency.”

The effective application of the tax and customs system, especially in a model where self-assessment is a fundamental tool for tax management, requires that all actors - not only the Administration - have adequate information, and can act without excessive effort or without a bureaucratic burden that prevents or hinders it more than necessary. Ensuring that citizens can fully exercise their rights and fulfil their obligations, in short, puts them at the centre and contributes to the fulfilment of the Agency's mission of ensuring that the application of the system is effective.

For this reason, the activities, not only of tax awareness through advertising campaigns, dissemination of content and training programs at the different levels of the educational system, try to ensure that citizens internalize the tax reality and assume naturally their relations with the Tax Administration.

In addition, a whole set of information and assistance actions, in person throughout the network of offices with a very wide territorial implementation, extended with social collaborators, with offices of other Administrations (CC. AA. and City Councils, for example, in the IRPF campaign) align themselves with this objective. Added to this is telephone support and the creation of ADIs that allow procedures to be carried out by telephone with a secure system for identifying the interested parties, which allows obtaining a report of the conversation and the result of the consultation carried out.

Along with this “human” assistance, another set of resources have been deployed - in line with the technological vocation of the Agency - such as virtual assistants, which allow us to delve deeper into the issues raised and address an unlimited number of cases, all without prejudice to attending to the rest of the forms of information and assistance of IRPF, Censuses, VAT, SII and Collection, made up of virtual assistants, Income and Census Informants, economic activity search engines, locators of operations for the delivery of goods and provision of services, operations qualifier real estate, calculators for payment terms, billing, late payment interest, modification of tax bases, and finally aid for the preparation of VAT models 303 and 390.

In addition to general solutions that have been provided for a long time and that have been improved, such as the communication of tax data, pre-declarations, manuals for each tax, etc., the Agency is trying to meet the needs of certain groups. Thus, the usual protocols have been adapted, particularly to meet the needs of people who may be less familiar with new technologies, accessibility issues, so that they can come to the offices spontaneously and be attended to at the time or at the first available slot or get their appointment for the earliest possible date.

One of the latest measures adopted is to bring technical tax language closer to citizens, adapting up to 8 different models (more will be improved), not only translating the fundamental elements into a more accessible language but also improving the format and highlighting the most important elements, with an initial cover page as a summary that includes the most important elements, who is asking for what and why, as well as what is expected of the person receiving that communication. In this way, together with the rigor of technical language, information is offered that is adapted to citizens with more limited knowledge of tax matters and their procedures.

Collaborating entities, tax advisors and professionals, and social collaborators, as well as collaborating entities, are key operators for the system to function. Close and ongoing contact and more specialized joint work, through various Forums with tax advisors and other tax professionals, and also with groups of taxpayers with a very specific profile and tax contingencies, such as large companies, also serve to make collaboration more effective and better adapt the actions of the Administration to the economic and social reality in which it operates.

In this desire to provide service and to place the citizen at the centre of the Agency's actions, supported by listening to their concerns and needs, it is essential and for this the Agency's own website is a fundamental tool that has been greatly improved. Not only in its appearance, its utilities and accessibility but in its contents and its bidirectional nature. The suggestions received from citizens, the flow of the complaints channel, the information derived from queries and doubts, the possibility of analyzing which services and information are most in demand offer information to the Administration that allows it to improve, adapting to the reality that makes this form of communication with citizens transparent.

There is still much to do, but the direction is clear and, knowing where we want to go, the measures that are adopted in this regard will help achieve the objective of achieving a modern and efficient Administration, but also close and adapted to the needs of citizens, facilitating the fulfillment of obligations and also the exercise of their rights.