Goals, Objectives, Strategies, and Results — Continued

Goal 1: Maximize voluntary compliance.

Voluntary compliance means customers take responsibility to pay their obligations without requiring the Ministry to enforce payment. Voluntary compliance is the best means of collecting revenue and debt. There are many initiatives the Ministry can pursue to improve services and maximize voluntary compliance.

Outcome/Key Indicator:

This is an overall measure of the voluntary revenue received by the Ministry without enforcement action. The more revenue received, the greater the government's capacity is to balance the budget and support public services. This measure can be influenced by the amount and effectiveness of enforcement activities which can increase awareness of tax obligations on the one hand (driving total voluntary revenues up), but also increase incremental revenues (driving down the proportion of voluntary revenues regardless of whether total revenues increase or decrease).

This measure shows the percentage of Ministry revenue that is voluntarily remitted by citizens and businesses, not including personal and corporate income taxes (which are administered by the Canada Revenue Agency on behalf of the Province). Gross revenue sources used in the calculation are listed below. See the first measure under Goal 2 for gross incremental revenue projections.

Objective 1:

Maximize use of new electronic technologies to facilitate ease of transactions.

Core Business Areas:

Tax Administration and Collection

Debt Administration and Collection and Home Owner Grant

Executive and Support Services

This objective is aimed at supporting voluntary compliance by maximizing the use of electronic processes to facilitate payment of tax and debt obligations. Improvements in voluntary compliance support the government's strategic goals by increasing revenues.

The Ministry is tracking the replacement of physical payments (cash, cheques, drafts) with e-payment means (electronic funds transfer, electronic data interchange, credit cards for bill and debtor payments but not tax remittances, and payment out of financial institutions payment systems) to identify increases in payment processing efficiency.

Specific payment information from the three core business areas is used to calculate the year-to-date average for the measure.

Strategies:

1. Lever capacity and economies of scale to increase efficiencies.

2. Improve and increase channels of payment to clients.

 

Objective 2:

Quality services that promote and respond to customer's needs by helping customers understand their obligations and entitlements, and pay the correct amount on time.

Core Business Area:

Tax Administration and Collection

This objective is also aimed at supporting voluntary compliance by making it easier for British Columbians to identify and meet their tax and debt obligations to government without enforcement action. The more readily taxpayers understand and accept their tax obligations, the more likely they are to comply voluntarily. On-time payments reflect taxpayers' understanding and willingness to comply.

The Ministry is tracking the remittance of social service tax, rural property tax and mineral, oil and gas taxes and calculating the percentage that are paid on or before their legislative due date.

Strategies:

1. Promote taxpayer acceptance of their responsibilities to pay tax obligations.