Successful joint IOTA-OECD Workshop on ISORA 2025 in Vienna, Austria

The purpose of this three-day Workshop was to share the recent updates on the ISORA survey, as well as to continue sharing knowledge and best practices among ISORA participants on the use of ISORA data for the benefit of tax administrations. The event was practical in nature, combining plenary sessions, country presentations, open debates, and breakout group discussions. The participants were presented with a general overview of ISORA with a focus on the current ISORA 2025 periodic survey, as well as functionalities and data input steps on the RA-FIT data collection platform. They also had a closer look at the new IMF Data Portal, exploring its design, content, and different ways of accessing the data.

As an introduction to the topic of using ISORA data, a presentation was made about the recent ISORA-related publications and materials published by ISORA partners, followed by an open discussion on the use of ISORA data by tax administrations, including the challenges of using the data. Presentations made by delegates from the IOTA member tax administrations of Azerbaijan, Belgium, Denmark, and Norway on their recent experience and best examples of using ISORA data for organisational planning, comparison of performance, engagement with other jurisdictions, and other purposes, provided a good insight for the breakout group discussions about the perspectives of wider use of data and promotion of ISORA internally.    

Another engaging activity of the Workshop was a practical exercise where the participants learned how to run different queries and export data from the new portal, and prepared a short analysis report comparing their own administration with other administrations using selected data points. Country reports were presented at the end of the event in the format of a “sales pitch”.   

IOTA is proud to take part in the ISORA partnership supporting this important global survey on revenue administration. We sincerely thank the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Tax Administration of Austria for their ongoing support and for hosting this event for the second time, as well as our partners from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for their cooperation in organising this joint effort.                     

The International Survey on Revenue Administration (ISORA) is the product of a collaboration between the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), the Fiscal Affairs Department (FAD) of the IMF, the Intra-European Organisation of Tax Administrations (IOTA), and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).