Comparative Analysis of Tax Administration Efficiency: Croatia vs. EU

Abstract

In the process of revenue collection, the tax administration incurs some costs, which are called tax authority costs (TAC). Efficiency of tax authorities means collecting as much revenue as possible with as little expense as possible. It is generally investigated by analysing cost efficiency indicators and by analysing the share in GDP, in the budget and in tax revenues. This paper is focused on the analysis of the efficiency of the Croatian tax authorities before and after the accession to the European Union in 2013. The analysis showed that the total TAC in Croatia in the analysed period was growing nominally, and the highest amounts were recorded in the years of crisis and the pandemic, i.e. 2009 and 2020, respectively. However, the share of TAC in GDP had been decreasing since 2009, which continued from 2013 and the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the EU until 2020. Despite the limitations, the analysis of cost efficiency indicators in the period of 2016–2020 pointed out that Croatia is not doing badly compared to other EU countries, and that the shares of TAC in all the analysed categories were falling until 2020. The abovementioned speaks in favour of the increasing nominal efficiency of the Croatian tax authorities until the pandemic, therefore, in subsequent research emphasis should be placed on the impact of the pandemic on the cost efficiency of the Croatian tax authorities and ways to further reduce their costs.