STS and Tax Agency of the Kingdom of Sweden signed a Memorandum of Cooperation

State Tax Service of Ukraine and Tax Agency of the Kingdom of Sweden (Skatteverket) start the new stage of cooperation. Memorandum was signed today with participation of the heads of two tax authorities.

Parties will cooperate in two directions according to the signed document. Firstly, they will improve the taxpayers’ services. Focus will be on developing methods and procedures that will help to increase tax compliance by the taxpayers.

Secondly, the cooperation will be directly related to the human resources capacity of the tax service. Thus, the Swedish party will provide consultations to Ukrainian tax specialists on improving management in terms of changes and strengthening the organization’s leadership, professional development and compliance with integrity and ethics. Considerable attention will also be paid to building a system of adaptation and continuous training of personnel in accordance with needs of the Service.

“Signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation with the Swedish Tax Agency is an extraordinary event for us, as we have been cooperating with our colleagues regarding the reform of the State Tax Service for a long time. Particularly, at this point, we will focus on improving customer service and moving to the new level in relationships with the taxpayers. We will teach and train our management to ensure that the changes we implement in the Service are faster, better and have positive results” – stated Chairman of the STS Serhii Verlanov.

Chairman of the State Tax Service emphasized that the introduction of technical cooperation project between the two tax services will help to transform the STS into more modern, reliable, efficient and service-oriented service.

In turn, Director General of the Swedish Tax Agency Katrin Westling Palm noted that in the process of joint work of Swedish and Ukrainian tax authorities, the focus will be on creating customer-oriented service.

“We will strive to achieve the new level of cooperation and relations between the taxpayers and tax authorities in Ukraine. Within the framework of our joint project, we also need to help Ukrainian tax service to implement better management for this process and effectively manage changes to transform into modern advanced organization” – stated Katrin Westling Palm.

It should be noted that the joint project of Ukrainian and Swedish tax specialists envisages the development of procedures within two components - “Taxpayer Orientation” and “Human Resources Management: Leadership and Teamwork”.

Within the framework of first component, measures will be taken at improving the provision of services to the taxpayers, not only electronic but also traditional ones. Both Ukrainian and Swedish tax specialists are unanimous that provision of services at the highest level and its high quality will directly affect the taxpayers’ compliance with the tax legislation.

Within the framework of second component, attention will be paid to the development of human resources. As follows, there will be developing of methodology aimed at employee’s evaluation, as well as ongoing training taking considering changes in the organizational structure. At the same time, issues of integrity, internal communications and management in terms of changes will be considered.