Portugal shares its expertise in Tax Citizenship Education

Thanks to Portugal’s tax administration – a pioneer in tax education – the country counts numerous good practices.

It all started back in 2007 when Portugal’s Tax and Customs Authority (AT) launched a Fiscal Education working group tasked to raise public awareness about the benefits of paying taxes. Information campaigns were rolled out at numerous schools and various initiatives were undertaken. 

A long list of initiatives include an exhibition dealing with Education and Fiscal Citizenship. Also, two comic books were 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 showing respect for all). Both showed the negative impact of tax evasion. 

Steady in its fight against tax evasion, Portugal also focussed on boosting tax compliance. In 2013, it launched the "Project for the Improvement of Tax Compliance (PMCF)". This started as an information service for taxpayers and was later incorporated into the "Tax Citizenship" programme.

Portugal also showed that the involvement of its youngest citizens is paramount with Tax Bem, a game which teaches children about taxes in a fun way.

"Contribute to a better society" became the motto of a new generation thanks to the involvement of AT which created this slogan, as well as a “Fiscal citizenship” logo.

Bringing tax education to the next level
With the launch of the TAXEDU portal in 2017, Portugal quickly took the lead in promoting the new portal, firstly on the AT’s intranet and on a webpage about Tax Citizenship.

To reach students, a pilot project "AT in contact at Universities" undertook the promotion of TAXEDU. With this in mind, representatives of AT attended numerous events, like job fairs, and met with more than 1 500 students.

Online campaigns were also organised. For instance, AT promoted on social media the “Tax Citizenship initiative”, reaching millions of citizens via newsletters, Twitters posts or information bulletins (Boletim Informativo). 

Portugal’s experience and expertise on tax education and tax citizenship has stretched beyond the country’s borders. Officials have been invited to attend conferences organised in Angola and Cape Verde.

Stay tuned!
AT will continue with the organisation of information sessions about taxation. 

Want to learn more about activities led by Portugal in promoting TAXEDU? The Tax and Customs Authority provides an overview in the report Contributos para a Cidadania e Educação Fiscal (in Portuguese).