Very little information is currently available on the role of tax intermediaries in lower-income countries, despite increasing evidence that their use is widespread. Given their capacity to influence taxpayers compliance, a better understanding of their role can help revenue authorities to plan for taxpayers engagement strategy, sensitisation around tax reform and audit function.
Focusing on the case of the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA), this project seeks to assess whether the background of tax agents — their professional qualification, years of experience and prior interaction with the RRA — influence the type of advice they provide to their clients, and whether they see their role as preserving the integrity of the tax system or providing service to their clients regardless of the nature of the advice they seek. This is done through a combination of survey experiments.
If the right information is available in tax return, then it should be possible to also investigate in tax administrative data whether the preferences expressed in the experiment are reflected in the actual advice given.