Denmark Tax Authority Secures Funds For Overhaul

by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels

15 December 2017

The Danish Tax Ministry, Skatteministeriet (SKAT), has confirmed that parliament has approved additional funding to enable the tax authority to undergo a significant administrative overhaul.

The SKAT said that an additional DKK5.5bn (USD872m) in funding for the administrative reforms were approved for the period to 2021 as part of the 2018 Finance Bill. This comes on top of the DKK5bn already allocated towards the changes in last year's Budget.

The 2018 Budget also provided DKK480m in funding to a "control package," which the SKAT intends to spend on enforcement and guidance in the area of value-added tax, with a particular emphasis on improving compliance rates among small companies.

Under the administrative shake-up, the SKAT will be replaced by seven independent management boards on July 1, 2018, in an attempt to introduce more specialization across a wide area of tax administration.

The Government plans to hire an additional 1,800 tax authority staff by 2021 and invest in new information technology systems.

The additional investment will also help it to target areas of the tax regime which are prone to avoidance and evasion, particularly in the area VAT, the Tax Ministry has said.

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