Cooperation in Voluntary Tax Compliance and International Compliance Assurance Programme (ICAP)

Abstract

The problem of taxpayers' tax compliance has existed since taxes first appeared on the historical stage. Tax compliance, which can be expressed in the most general sense as the fulfillment of taxpayers' obligations, is an important factor that should be evaluated in the background of tax losses and evasion. Since almost all states rely heavily on taxes as a source of public revenue, they have consistently sought to find measures to guarantee this compliance. Studies that focus at the responses of taxpayers to taxes and research into the underlying causes of tax incompatibility in this context. Based on this research, the concept of taxpayers' voluntary compliance has recently gained attention as a means of assuring tax compliance. It may be claimed that the International Compliance Assurance Programme (ICAP) developed by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is one of the most recent among several concepts and strategies to secure voluntary compliance. ICAP was developed utilising experience gained from "cooperative compliance" programs that have been in place for a while in some countries, focusing on the increase of cooperation between the taxpayer and the tax administration to ensure taxpayers' voluntary compliance with taxes. On the other hand, it represents the first effort and varies from the aforementioned domestic practices in that it brings compliance and cooperation to the international scale. In this respect, examining the background and current practice of ICAP, which is still in the pilot stage, together with its theoretical background is of great importance in terms of evaluating the future of the concept of cooperative compliance and making predictions about its development in the international arena.