The Italian Revenue Agency has participated in Palermo Chiama Italia, an event that took place last 23 May 23 in Palermo (Sicily) to commemorate the death of the two Sicilian judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, symbols of the fight against organised crime.

The initiative was promoted by the Ministry of Education, University and Research and by the “Giovanni e Francesca Falcone” Foundation. Thousands of students took part in the initiative in many Italian cities. The Italian Revenue Agency participated with a stand in Palermo where it promoted school initiatives on taxes, fairness and tax legality.

The “Tax Education of Children and Youth” Programme was presented at the Sheraton Zagreb Hotel in Zagreb on 31 May 2019. The Programme was jointly developed by the Ministry of Finance, Tax Administration and the Ministry of Science and Education.

The main goal of this Programme is the education of children and youth, followed by the aim to raise awareness about the prevention of tax fraud and tax evasion.

Children and youth participated in the ceremony, making their own special contributions. Larisa and Jana, who attend primary school, explained the importance of paying taxes from their viewpoint, while the students of Tax Studies Lara, Karlo and Tin made a 3-minute film for this occasion showing how taxes influence students’ day-to-day lives.

Mr Zdravko Zrinušić, State Secretary at the Ministry of Finance, Mr Božidar Kutleša, Assistant to the Minister of Finance, Director General of the Tax Administration, Mrs Renata Kalčić, Assistant to the Director General of the Tax Administration, and Mr Stipe Mamić, Assistant to the Minister of Science and Education, addressed the audience. 

The Tax Administration plans to implement the Programme in the school year 2019/2020, starting with primary schools throughout the Republic of Croatia.

During the second stage of the Programme, at the end of 2019, education will commence in secondary schools and a media campaign will be launched to raise awareness among young people on the importance of taxes.

Throughout history, people have come up with very creative ways – some of which are a little on the unusual side – for tax collection. Let’s find out about some of them.

In Athens, the capital of Ancient Greece, eisphora was a kind of tax imposed in times of war. All Athenian citizens had to pay this tax which was used for the State’s expenditure on weapons and the upkeep of the army. Once the war ended though, Athenians no longer had to pay this tax and were sometimes reimbursed with the additional resources the State gained during the war. 

During the Roman Empire, all sorts of taxes were created: property tax, custom duties, general tax on sales of goods and inheritance tax. What many people may not realise is that we still pay these taxes today!

One of the very first taxes was munera, otherwise known as duty or obligation. Affluent Romans would pay this tax to contribute to the running of the Roman Empire. 

In the past, citizens around Europe had to pay some very unusual taxes, such as a tax placed on urine in Roman Empire or window tax invented during the reign of King William III in England. 

Another tax in England was known as the ‘guest fee’. When the Vikings invaded England, they refused to leave unless the English paid them to do so. 

You can learn more about these and other strange taxes  in the microlearning clip “How did taxes come about?” 

Designed for students aged 9 to 12, the clip also explains how the countries manage tax collection and spending nowadays and highlights the benefits of taxes. 

It is available on the TAXEDU digital platform, which features e-learning resources, videos and educational information about taxes in 22 EU languages.  
 

Since its launch at the end of 2017, the TAXEDU portal has evolved into the EU’s leading website for tax education. Let’s find out more about its incredible growth.

TAXEDU, a European Union pilot project, was developed to help educate young European citizens about tax and how it affects their lives. Today, the portal boasts games, e-learning material and microlearning clips to make learning about tax fun and engaging for digital-savvy learners.

User visits
 

The number of visits to the portal has increased substantially since last year. From February to September 2018, an average of 3 260 visits per month was recorded.  This grew to a staggering average of 10 500 visits per month during the February to April 2019 period.
 

This impressive increase is primarily attributed to extensive and optimised advertising on digital networks and the continuous improvements made to the portal’s content and functionalities. The campaigns that ran on Facebook, Instagram and Search and Display Networks, were successful and attracted targeted users. These include national educators, teachers, vocational trainers, university lecturers and, of course, youth – the next generation of taxpayers. However, 19 % of visits came through other search engines.
 

The most visited sections of the portal are its homepage and Teachers’ corner – in all linguistic versions. The Training Catalogue, Cool stuff and Forum sections also attracted the interest of visitors. On average, they spent almost 1 minute and 30 seconds on the website which indicates that the content matched what they were looking for. Instagram users liked the polls with examples over following the 2QT adventures as they were much more interactive. FB users appreciated both the polls and videos.

Geographical spread
 

When it comes to where users are located, Romania continuously comes out on top of country statistics. Data from December 2018 to January 2019, showed Romanian users accounted for 37 % of the total reported users. This is due to country’s launch of the European pilot project TAXEDU as part of a wider economic and financial education programme for Romanian citizens. Users from Spain and Italy also actively consulted the portal.
 

From February to April 2019, Romania again accounted for 30 % of the total reported visitors, followed by Germany and Cyprus. 
 

The continual growth of the portal’s popularity ensures TAXEDU’s initiatives are communicated to all EU member countries – ultimately educating the next generation of European taxpayers. 

 

No one will argue that the awareness of taxpayers is of the utmost importance and therefore all the measures are appropriate.

The TAXEDU website was presented to the entire Lithuanian teacher community using the YouTube channel. The Lithuanian Ministry of Education has a YouTube channel called "Teacher TV". This channel has 5 500 subscribers, which is a large number of non-commercial channels in Lithuania.

I personally participated in the live show and introduced TAXEDU, and now there is a record that everyone can watch at their convenience. We also combined other aspects in the presentation. Since our content is for children, we have proposed an idea that children would collect receipts during the summer when buying ice cream or other delicacies. In the autumn, they will be able to see how much money they have spent on taxes. We also have a voucher lottery in Lithuania, so children from the age of 14 will not only be able to collect receipts but also register them in the lottery.

A child can see on the receipt how much VAT has been paid, may be interested about “What is VAT?” and “Where did the money go?” Robot 2QT will help to understand this.

We are working hard to make teachers, children and parents aware of the great TAXEDU training tools, because we all have a common goal of raising awareness among taxpayers.

The event was organized under the the multiannual action programme„Fiscalis 2020“.

Program „Edukacija djece i mladih u području poreza“ svečano je predstavljen u Zagrebu, 31. svibnja 2019. godine, u Sheraton Zagreb Hotelu. Program je nastao u suradnji Ministarstva financija, Porezne uprave i Ministarstva znanosti i obrazovanja.

Glavni cilj ovog programa je edukacija djece i mladih, dok je sekundarni cilj podizanje svijesti o borbi protiv utaje poreza odnosno izbjegavanju plaćanja poreza.

Poseban doprinos svečanosti svojim sudjelovanjem dala su djeca i mladi. Osnovnoškolke Larisa i Jana navele su svoje razloge zašto je važno plaćati poreze, dok su studenti Poreznog studija Lara, Karlo i Tin za ovu prigodu snimili trominutni film kojim su prikazali kako porezi utječi na svakodnevni život studenata.               

Okupljenima su se na svečanosti uz predstavnike djece i mladih obratili i: g. Zdravko Zrinušić, državni tajnik u Ministarstvu financija, g. Božidar Kutleša, pomoćnik ministra financija, ravnatelj Porezne uprave, gđa. Renata Kalčić, pomoćnica ravnatelja Porezne uprave te g. Stipe Mamić, pomoćnik ministrice znanosti i obrazovanja. 

Porezna uprava planira program početi provoditi u školskoj godini 2019/2020 i to prvo u osnovnim školama na području cijele Republike Hrvatske.

U drugoj fazi programa, krajem 2019., započele bi se aktivnosti održavanja edukacije u srednjim školama i pokretanja medijske kampanje podizanja svijesti o važnosti poreza kod mladih.

Školenie pre učiteľov finančnej gramotnosti!
 

30.mája 2019 v MPC Bratislava organizuje akadémia FS v spolupráci s MPC Bratislava bezplatné školenie učiteľov a koordinátorov finančnej gramotnosti.

O ďalších pripravovaných školeniach organizovaných finančnou správou sa môžete dozvedieť aj priamo na stránke finančnej správy:

https://www.financnasprava.sk/sk/infoservis/skolenia

Anche l’Agenzia delle Entrate era presente alla manifestazione Palermo Chiama Italia, che si è svolta lo scorso 23 maggio a Palermo per ricordare la morte dei due giudici siciliani Giovanni Falcone e Paolo Borsellino, simboli della lotta alla criminalità organizzata. L’iniziativa, promossa dal Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca e dalla Fondazione “Giovanni e Francesca Falcone”, ha portato nelle piazze di tutta Italia migliaia di studenti. L’Agenzia delle Entrate ha partecipato alla manifestazione con uno stand a Palermo all’interno del quale i funzionari hanno fatto conoscere ai ragazzi e ai bambini presenti le iniziative che svolgono nelle scuole per parlare di tasse, equità e legalità fiscale.

As a young adult, finding a job is the first step to financial independence. And with this, comes income tax. However, do you know how tax affects you? If you don’t, TAXEDU has a course for you.

The TAXEDU portal, a European Union pilot project to educate young European citizens about tax and how it affects their lives, brings Taxes in our life – a massive open online course (MOOC) for young adults.

This is an online course that aims to help young adults learn more about tax and how it affects them. The advantage of this course is that it’s informative and also free and flexible. This means it can fit around one’s life – making it perfect for those with busy schedules.

The course does not follow a set schedule, so young adults can complete it at their own pace.  All they need is access to the internet and an eagerness to learn about tax.

Four chapters

The MOOC provides young adults with information on tax that is relevant to this phase of their lives. It comprises five chapters.

In the first chapter, learners will gain a better understanding of income tax and employment income. They will also learn about the negative effects of shadow and grey economy on individuals as well as the role of social security contributions paid by employees.

By the end of chapter two, participants will have a good representation of the concept of intellectual property and micro-company. They will also have a better understanding of the dissimilarities between different types of taxes, what VAT and the MOSS scheme are, as well as a brief description of an applicable taxing incentive.

Chapter three helps learners with their understanding of what employment relationship is and develop their ability to identify how income tax applies. Further to this, they will be able to identify the impact of social security contributions on employment income and how to avoid double taxation. Learners will also be able to define the concept of employment income.

In chapter four, the notion of self-employed people will be explored alongside the taxation rules that surround them. Learners will also discover how to avoid double taxation as a self-employed person and how the VAT functions for self-employed people.

Chapter five is an assessment. Learners will have the opportunity to reflect and apply what they have learned about tax throughout the course. 

How to enrol

Enrolling in the Taxes in our life MOOC is easy. Click on TAXEDU’s Training Catalogue and find the link to “Iversity”. Click the “enrol” button and follow the simple instructions to get started.

Thanks to the TAXEDU portal, learning has never been easier. What are you waiting for? Go and enrol now and learn about how taxes affect you as a young adult.

The TAXEDU presentation campaign is accelerating in Lithuania. This site has been presented in many major cities of Lithuania, including Vilnius, the capital.
 

TAXEDU Administrator in Lithuania Šarūnas Gurklys spoke about the website and its very useful and informative content. This information has already been presented to over 50 school principals and teachers, specialists from the Ministry of Education and, most importantly, children.
 

This is the right tool for educating young people. The school representatives listened with interest, and some of them hurried to talk to the STI specialist about this topic for their pupils. Tax Inspectorate staff are now touring the country to introduce TAXEDU website.
 

The aim is for the new generation to grow into honest taxpayers and TAXEDU is helping with this.

The event was organized under the the multiannual action programme„Fiscalis 2020“.