Between 18 and 24 March, Revenue Commissioners (Irish Tax and Customs) participated in Global Money Week (GMW) 2024. Organised by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), GMW is an annual worldwide financial awareness campaign for children and young people. The goal of GMW is to give young people the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to make sound financial decisions and ultimately achieve financial wellbeing and resilience. In 2024, GMW was coordinated in Ireland by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), with organisations and schools throughout Ireland taking part.

The official GMW slogan is “Learn. Save. Earn”. This slogan represents the key messages of GMW, empowering students to learn about money management, as well as encouraging them to save for their futures and develop skills which will support them in obtaining employment or becoming self-employed. 

Each year, GMW also focuses on a theme. GMW2024 theme, “Protect your money, secure your future,” focused on safe money management and being aware of potential risks such as financial scams and fraud, including phishing, smishing and identity theft. 

What did Revenue do for Global Money Week 2024? 

Revenue issued a GMW newsletter to educators who had previously registered to receive education focused newsletters from Revenue. The newsletter provided subscribers with information on:

• What is GMW
• the GMW organiser within Ireland
• the GMW 2024 events and activities
• Revenue’s involvement in GMW.
   

During GMW, Revenue’s Schools outreach team visited a select number of secondary schools, delivering presentations to students in Transition Year, 5th and 6th year. The presentations included topics such as

• how to get set up on myAccount to manage your own taxes and
• how to use Revenue’s online services safely and securely.

Revenue shared key messages on its X (formerly Twitter) account. These messages provided information on:

• how to use Revenue’s online services (ROS and myAccount) safely
• how Revenue contacts its customers
• common scams for customers to be aware of.

These messages received over 15,000 views during GMW. 

Alongside its work during Global Money Week, Revenue continues to promote its Transition Year “Introduction to Tax ‘module, through attendance at various teacher conferences. Launched in October 2023, over 2,500 students across Ireland have so far undertaken the Introduction to Tax course. The course is free to download from the Revenue website, and includes all materials needed to teach the course. The module provides students with the knowledge and skills necessary for students to manage their own tax affairs.

18 first grade students from a primary school in Nové Zámky were introduced to the topic of "taxes", with the help of the ‘Too Cute’ video from the TAXEDU website. The students answered questions regarding the meaning of taxes. The Financial Administration gave piggy bags to the students as a reward for giving multiple answers on the question "Where does the collected money go?". The visit of the employees of the Financial Administration introduced the class to whole host of new terms such as "state treasury". The kids also learned about the legal requirement for all citizens to pay taxes. The class teacher was made aware of how to access the TAXEDU resources online and has  future plans to use the videos to further explore  more tax topics. 

For a decade, the Financial Administration of the Republic of Slovenia has been striving to raise awareness among young people in Slovenia about the importance of taxes for the social welfare of all citizens. The Financial Administration implemented the project "Tax Literacy for Youth" in primary and secondary schools as well as universities. This time, it responded to an invitation from the Institute of Education of the Republic of Slovenia and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Slovenia, which organized a special training session for teachers to improve financial literacy, including knowledge of taxes. In collaboration with the Bank of Slovenia, a two-day seminar for teachers was held on March 18 and April 3, 2024.The first day focused on financial and banking topics, while the second day was dedicated to taxes. Under the title "How to Talk to Students About Taxes in School?", teachers were introduced to topics that they should be familiar with if they wanted to deliver tax-related topics to students in their classrooms. As a practical illustration of organizing a lesson on taxes, the online platform TaxEdu was presented, including cartoons for children aged 9 to 12 and e-courses for high school students. By watching individual videos and e-modules, teachers could gain a realistic insight into how a lesson on taxes could be conducted. Participants were very satisfied with what they saw and stated that they would incorporate the TAXEDU platform into their teaching materials, even though tax-related subjects are not yet included in the mandatory school curriculum in Slovenia. They are aware that raising awareness among young people about the importance of paying taxes is truly important for the future of the youth, as it guarantees them free education up to university, social security during family formation, accessible public healthcare for all, and ultimately, social security in retirement. The concluding part of the workshop involved teachers preparing their own lesson on financial and tax literacy for their students, which they successfully completed in the online classroom. The training session has shown a great need for raising awareness and educating adults about paying taxes as a fundamental condition for a modern society to function and meet our common needs. In the school environment, teachers are indeed the key factor who can increase the awareness of paying taxes as a civic value among young people. Therefore, in the future, attention should also be paid to this target group and not only directly to young people. 

In Italy, the Sicily Regional Directorate of the Italian Revenue Agency met students at the Palermo University. The topic of the lesson was “Tax legality and social fairness”. Tax officials outlined the Agency’s mission: promote tax compliance, that is, the highest level of voluntary fulfilment of tax obligations. Then, they described the Revenue Agency’s main activities: providing services and assistance to taxpayers and carrying out assessments aimed at countering tax evasion. The lesson also focused on “Tax and School”, the educational project through which Italian Tax administration meets primary and secondary level students to talk about tax legality. In the second part of the lesson, tax officials talked about the Italian Constitution, the most important Italian law which establishes the main principles of the Italian tax system: tax fairness, legality, and the ability to contribute (who has more, pays more). The Constitution, moreover, establishes the duty of political, economic, and social solidarity. The duty of economic solidarity also implies the obligation to pay taxes to the State to contribute to the functioning of the public services guaranteed to all citizens. At the end of the lesson, students underwent a final test to assess their learning and participated in a debate on tax evasion issues. The students took part in the lesson and in the debate with great interest, expressing a negative opinion on the tax evaders.

This year, officials from the Agenzia delle Entrate (Tax Office) and the Agenzia delle Entrate-Riscossione (Italian debt collection agency) in Sicily shared the Italian project "Tax and School" with an international school in Congo to reach citizens of the future and offer them opportunities for growth and civic engagement. Together they reflected on the importance and benefit of taxes and their utilisation for the public good.

The children took part in the webinar with great interest. Many of them are children of European workers.

The teachers had been preparing them for the event and for the study of the tax system in Europe and around the world for some time; in fact, the students paid close attention to the lesson. Our tax education experience has been extended beyond our borders, sharing our tax system and the importance of a fair society. The children were very interested in the topics presented by the Agency officials, frowning upon the behaviour of tax evaders who undermine the country's well-being and growth.

The multiculturalism of our times has affirmed how differences create wealth, offering common ground for growth and improvement. Children of different nationalities in the same class who reflect on how to live in a fair society provide hope for a better future.

Children of all cultures expressed their belief in a world guided by just laws that ensure peace and shared well-being for all, and this is the most important goal. 

Opening the dialogue on fiscal legality in Congo has meant talking about social services and benefits for everyone.  The situation in Congo, which these young students experience every day, albeit through the filter of their different nationalities, needs new inspiration and a renewed social conscience which can address the challenge of building a more proactive and innovative political and economic culture. The children listened to the ideas presented by the officials and we are confident that the seed of law cast in their direction will bear fruit over time.

On Wednesday 29 and Thursday 30 November, Revenue (Irish Tax and Customs) hosted the first in-person meeting of the Fiscalis Project Group (FPG) on Tax Education in the historic grounds of Dublin Castle, headquarters of Revenue. 

The meeting was opened by Brian Boyle, Assistant Secretary for Accountant General's & Strategic Planning Division, Revenue (Irish Tax and Customs). Mr Boyle welcomed the delegates, who represented tax administrations from Austria, Italy, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain. 

Delegates from five tax administrations gave presentations on a variety of topics, including their current national programmes, research on tax literacy, as well as potential future initiatives that the group could undertake. 

A series of breakout sessions were organised throughout the day and a half meeting. The breakout sessions provided the opportunity for delegates to share experience and advice, based on the work of their national administrations in tax education. Delegates were invited to propose solutions to common challenges, share advice on the design, promotion, and delivery of tax education initiatives and to look at what participants of the FPG would like the group to achieve in the future. 

On Day 2, DGTAXUD’s consortium of external contractors provided a progress update on their work throughout the year, as well as future developments. The Project Group appreciate the work and support of the consortium throughout the year. 

To close the meeting, the role of Project Group Chair was officially handed over from Revenue (Ireland) to Agenzia Della Entrate (Italy). Delegates from Italy provided an overview of their national tax education initiatives to date, providing a glimpse into potential areas that could be explored by the Project Group in the next year. 

The Project Group eagerly await 2024, where under the chairmanship of Agenzia Della Entrate, members hope to increase tax education amongst young people across the EU.