The French Government has sent a clear signal about the importance of e-government, specifically by reducing the taxes of citizens who file online. The reduction is 20 Euros, which comes to about $26. That may not sound like much -- in fact, it is something like .1 percent of the average French citizen's gross yearly wages -- but it is a substantial potential commitment.
France has 61 million people and is an aging country, meaning that about 55 million of its people are old enough to regularly pay taxes. If a significant percentage of that sub-population avails itself of online filing, the French government will have committed millions of Euros to this online tax break.
Even before this monetary initiative, French citizens have been flocking to embrace online tax filing. In 2002, online about 120,000 taxpayers filed online; that number rose to 1.2 million by 2004, representing almost a fifth of all taxpayers with Internet access.
In 2005, France is offering not just the 20 Euros but more advanced functionality to lure more taxpayers online. The coming year will see advances like pre-filled online forms, better data management, and visibility into three years of tax records online.
Analyst Francois Dauriat of Ovum says that the tax break is an example of how ADEA, France's new e-government agency (set up in 2004), "has clearly regenerated the way that e-government is handled in France." This is due, he says, not just to a "willingness to promote network teamwork, best practices, and standardization," but also to a decent marketing budget that comes in at 13 million Euros over the next four years.
For the government of France, as for its citizens, the primary motivation behind e-government is convenience, not just for taxpayers but also for administrative organizations that no longer have to bother with the same volume of time-consuming, error-admitting manual processes, in this case around tax filing.
Quelle: Line 56, 06.01.2005
