For the heads of Tax Administrations (TAs) in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), knowing the starting point and the trajectory of their peers in the field of digitization and digital transformation at a global level is a priority.

A global inventory of technology initiatives in the tax or fiscal field allows to compare approaches, measure progress and prioritize investments with an objective support. Thus, the management and technical teams avoid adopting technologies “for novelty”, align the transformation with the national digitalization plan of each country (Digital Government)[i] and they streamline the execution towards concrete results, which brings as a consequence: greater voluntary compliance, lower administrative burden and better services to the taxpayer.

Unlike in the past, today there are public sources from different international organizations – reports and studies, among others – that offer useful data on the topic of digitization and transformation of TA. Taking advantage of them facilitates comparative analysis (benchmarking), the identification of good practices, the characterization of gaps and future cooperation between tax administrations.

A recent example is the report published last June 4, 2025, by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), called “Digitalization initiatives and digital transformation of the tax administration”[ii], which provides an overview of the scope and progress of the approaches adopted by the main ATs at the global level.

This report summarizes the data from the “Inventory of Tax Technology Initiatives”[iii], powered by the “Global Survey on Digitalization 2024”, answered by more than one hundred TAs. However, only the information from the 54 member jurisdictions of the OECD’s Forum on Tax Administration (FTA) is analyzed[iv]. In my opinion, although the OECD warns that it did not review or validate the data — so they should be considered self-declared by the participating administrations -, it is an obligatory reference material to guide strategic decisions.

We should also highlight its collaborative approach: together with the tax administrations, various international institutions participated, including the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT)[v], which reveals a global and coordinated effort in view of the importance of digitalization and digital transformation in practice.

As the report highlights, TAs are progressing through different stages of digitalization and digital transformation. The FTA Digital Transformation Maturity Model[vi], for example, classify that progress into: “Incipient, In progress, Consolidated, Outstanding and Ambitious”. In addition, each TA operates within its own regulatory, economic, social and cultural frameworks. A uniform approach was therefore not always possible and practical; the observations in the report should be interpreted in the light of those differences.

Therefore, the top authorities of the TAs in LAC have a solid guide: the vision “Tax Administration 3.0”[vii] in conjunction with the ”Maturity Model”, mentioned above. Both instruments make it possible to self-assess the current level, prioritize initiatives and draw up an objective and especially important roadmap in coordination with resources from other international organizations[viii].

Specifically, the report “Digitalization initiatives and digital transformation of the tax administration” it maps the scope and the degree of progress of tools and solutions implemented by AT, with the aim of supporting national digitalization reforms and digital transformation.

In this sense, the document is structured in six pillars of the “Tax Administration 3.0” approach: (1) Digital identity; (2) Contact points with the taxpayer; (3) Data management and standards; (4) Management and application of tax regulations; (5) New competencies; and (6) Governance frameworks.

Finally, in the next installments we will address each pillar with a focus on the Tax Administrations of Latin America and the Caribbean, highlighting the most important findings and their practical application.

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