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'Tax Collector' gives insiders' view of how a once-hated agency came to win taxpayers' hearts
By Kang Hyun-kyung
The Bible gives some insight into the historical perception of tax collectors. In the Gospel of Luke, for example, Jesus sympathizes with the tax collector Zacchaeus, causing outrage from the surrounding crowd. The Gospel also tells of a parable about the self-righteous Pharisee and a self-deprecating tax collector who describes himself as a sinner.
Tax collectors were despised, just as the biblical descriptions suggest.
There has been little change in the general public's attitude toward the tax service. In many countries, including Korea, people tend to display a "visceral dislike" toward tax agencies. A 2019 public opinion survey of the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission shows the National Tax Service was one of the lowest-ranked public agencies in terms of transparency.
The book "From Feared Tax Collector to Popular Service Agency" co-authored by Anders Strich and Lennart Wittberg, however, presents a different narrative. "Tax Collector" was recently translated into Korean and published by Sesang, a local publishing house established by Korea Taxpayers' Association.
Their findings are stunning. In Sweden, the tax service is one of the most trusted government agencies.
How is it possible for the tax agency of a country well-known for generous spending on social welfare to be favorably accepted by the public?
In "Tax Collector," Strich and Wittberg give an insiders' view of how a once hated tax agency was able to earn the taxpayers' trust. The authors say their workplace, the Swedish Tax Agency, changed public opinion through its decades-long continued, strenuous efforts to revamp the agency to better serve their clients ― the taxpayers.
According to the book, in 2011 the Swedish Tax Agency won the top award given to the most modern and innovative public agency out of 337 Swedish public service organizations. In 2019, the tax service made the top 10 of the most innovative organizations in both the public and private sectors.
A 2012 public opinion survey found that 83 percent of Swedish people trusted the tax agency, 15 percent up from the poll taken in 2006.
Strich joined the tax agency in 1990, and Wittberg has worked with the agency since 1988. At the start of their careers, they said the reputation of their agency was not positive, so they felt uncomfortable when asked what they did for a living.
Tax agency-taxpayer relationship was hierarchical and officials treated taxpayers in this manner. Tax officials were like hunters looking for prey. Once tax evasion cases were spotted, they were ruthless.
The arrogant, aggressive tax officials began to question the effectiveness of their forceful, old practice of hunting down tax evaders from the 1970s.
The turning point was a high-profile tax case involving the Swedish filmmaker Ingmar Bergman (1918-2007). In January, 1976, Bergman was arrested by two undercover police officers on charges of tax evasion, while rehearsing August Strindberg's "The Dance of Death" at the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm.
Later on, the court cleared the filmmaker of the charges. Bergman, however, was outraged not because of the investigation, but because of the way the tax agency treated him. He reportedly said that he was insulted by "prestige-seeking poker players." The humiliating experience led him to leave Sweden for Germany.
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| "From Feared Tax Collector to Popular Service Agency" co-authored by Anders Strich and Lennart Wittberg, was recently translated into Korean and published by Sesang, a local publishing house established by Korea Taxpayers' Association. |
In "Tax Collector," the two authors say the tax service's crackdown on the filmmaker happened many years before they joined the service, but they heard a lot about the consequences of the high-profile case.
The fact that the case is still discussed by tax officials decades later shows the significance of its effect on the tax service, the authors said. They added that the high-profile case stirred a national debate about the code of conduct of state agencies. "It tarnished the image of the Swedish Tax Agency and sparked soul-searching among some officials. Some asked if this is how we wanted to be seen by the public or if we were really like that," the authors said in the Korean translation of the book.
Kim Young-ran, a former Supreme Court justice and current chairwoman of the Supreme Court Sentencing Commission, said "Tax Collector" is a must-read book for all people working with law enforcement agencies in Korea. "One of the things that I was struck by in this book is the transformation of a powerful organization by changing its focus from performance to value," she said in her comments on the book. "The tax agency used to put performance and efficiency first. But it shifted its focus on how they are viewed by the public. What's amazing to know is that such a change in approach played a critical role in changing the culture of the organization completely."
