Activities developed in the field of Tax Citizenship and the TAXEDU Portal

Education for Tax Citizenship is a concern of the Portuguese Tax and Customs Authority (AT). In fact, as a pioneer in this field, it has been developing actions at the level of the tax administrations of European Union (EU) countries for years. In 2007, a Fiscal Education working group was created to develop material in this area. Theyorganised an exhibition on Education and Fiscal Citizenship which was held at several schools around the country. Two comic books were also published: ‘Os pesadelos fiscais de Porfírio Zap’ (‘Nightmares of Porfirio Zap’) and ‘Era uma vez no planeta do respeito por todos’ (‘Once upon a time on the planet of respect for all’). The books aimed to raise awareness about the importance for all of us to contribute, according to one’s real income, to the general good, highlighting the individual risks and the collective losses of tax evasion. Tax Bem was also created! This is a tax education game for ages 12+. The goal was to go through 70 houses to reach the great Tree of Citizenship. Through the game, children learn more about their tax duties and rights as citizens while having fun. In addition to promoting ‘Tax Citizenship’ among young people and adults, AT has actively shown interest in helping taxpayers voluntarily comply with their tax obligations. For years, AT has explicitly noted its intention in this area in its strategy and activity plans. Recently, work has been undertaken to create the Fiscal Citizenship logo and its slogan “Contribute to a better society”. Both have been used not only as a separator in the Finance Portal (AT website), but also in merchandising and other materials.

Image 1: Logo of ‘Fiscal Citizenship’

In promoting this idea and the TAXEDU portal itself, several initiatives have been developed not only internally but also externally.

Internal communication

In 2017, a Communication Plan was drawn up for the promotion of the TAXEDU portal, since, due to its contents, it was important to promote education for fiscal citizenship.

Already, in 2019, there was wide dissemination of the TAXEDU portal on AT’s intranet and, simultaneously, a web page on ‘Tax Citizenship’ was created. The actions developed in universities through the ‘AT in Contact’ programme were also disseminated and published externally on the Finance Portal.

Consequently, all of these actions are foreseen in AT’s activity plans, and in 2019 this was explicitely stated as an objective: “Collaborate with DG TAXUD in updating the TAXEDU portal and collaborate with DSCPAC (AT’s Communication Department) in disseminating the use of the portal in the context of promoting fiscal literacy.”

External Communication
One of the areas of intervention was the ‘Project for the Improvement of Tax Compliance (PMCF)’, created in 2013, with a view to facilitating and helping taxpayers who intend to meet their tax obligations.
With the restructuring of AT, this pilot project was integrated into the scope of ‘Tax Citizenship’ (2016) and extended to other colleges and vocational schools.
In this context, the pilot project ‘AT in Contact’ at universities emerged, carrying out awareness-raising and clarification actions in colleges and professional schools. At these venues, AT has a space dedicated to the promotion of the TAXEDU Portal.
At the same time, AT invested in its presence at job fairs, colleges and vocational training schools to create a relationship of trust with and proximity to citizens.
Between 2017 and 2019, as part of the ‘AT in Contact’ project, AT participated in 24 actions where more than 1 500 students were present. One such event was held in Lisbon in October 2019.

Image 2: Instituto Superior Técnico of Lisbon – 18 October 2019

To reinforce the idea of Fiscal Citizenship, AT acquired small merchandising gifts with the logo, to be distributed at presentations, workshops and job fairs, which are usually held at universities and professional schools.

Image 3: Merchandise

The contents of Tax Citizenship and TAXEDU have been disseminated through Twitter, our internal television circuit and, in a more expansive way, through our Newsletter and Bulletin (Boletim Informativo), reaching millions of citizens.

The theme of Citizenship and Tax Education was presented at conferences held in various Portuguese-speaking countries, namely Angola and Cape Verde. AT participated in two congresses and, in its presentations, mention was made of the importance of the TAXEDU portal.

In addition, within a more academic scope, the report ‘Contributos para a Cidadania e Educação Fiscal’ was produced. This report provides a history of the work done by AT for the promotion of Tax Citizenship and Fiscal Education and also for dissemination of the TAXEDU portal.

At the television level, the ‘Fatura da Sorte’ (‘Lucky Invoice’) draw aims to reward taxpayers’ citizenship, the fight against the black economy and the prevention of tax evasion, with the aim of creating a more equitable tax system.

Thus, every Thursday afternoon, it is broadcast on Portuguese public television — RTP1.

In this programme, in addition to the disclosure of the winning coupon, information on the different tax and customs issues relating to tax obligations are disclosed, as well as news of interest to taxpayers.

Similarly, RTP presenters always refer to the duty of tax citizenship, appealing to viewers to always demand an invoice with the respective tax identification number (TIN).

Three programmes have already been broadcast and  have specifically addressed the topic of Fiscal Citizenship and made reference to the TAXEDU portal. The three programmes added brought 1 million viewers. They were broadcast on 27 September 2018, 8 August 2019 and the 26 August 2019.