IMF DATA

What is ISORA?

The International Survey on Revenue Administration (ISORA) collects tax administration data from national or federal tax administrations. It surveys tax administration operations and other characteristics based on common questions and definitions agreed by five international organizations: the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Intra-European Organization of Tax Administrations (IOTA), and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Tax administrations participate voluntarily in the survey, providing data through an online data collection platform administered by the IMF.

Why was ISORA established?

ISORA is designed to gather tax administration data on a regular basis, with the following objectives:

• Provide an improved focus on data management, performance measurement, and reporting by tax administrations
• Provide a set of comparable and standardized tax administration data to improve advice and analysis, in areas such as:
  • Understanding historical performance
  • Identifying trends and establishing baselines
  • Flagging policy and administrative inefficiencies
  • Providing data to facilitate focused and in-depth research
• Develop data and analyses that can improve cross-country comparisons
• Assist in developing international revenue administration performance measurement and reporting standards
• Improve the quality of revenue administration capacity development
• Provide necessary data to better calibrate revenue administration assessment tools, such as the Tax Administration Diagnostic Assessment Tool (TADAT)
• Assist senior executives of revenue administrations in managing and evaluating their administrations’ performance

More background on the rationale for ISORA are discussed in a podcast by staff of the ADB, CIAT, the IMF, IOTA and the OECD.

Arabic    Mandarin   English    French   Russian   Spanish    Portuguese

How does ISORA work?

The ISORA questionnaire is hosted on an online data collection platform developed and administered by the IMF. The online platform includes built-in completeness, and consistency checks to aid survey participants.

Administrations participating in ISORA are supported by staff of the five partner organizations. Following data collection, the data are reviewed to improve the accuracy, completeness and consistency of the data provided. Once the data for a round have been finalized, the dataset is made available to the public through the IMF Data Portal  data.imf.org. 

How often is there an ISORA survey?

Until 2021, ISORA was run biennially, collecting data for two fiscal years each time. Following the ISORA 2018 round, a major review of the survey was undertaken. This resulted in significant changes to the survey: a smaller set of questions is now asked annually, with additional questions to be asked periodically (every four years). Data for the annual questions are collected every year. Participants in ISORA 2020 and subsequent surveys agree in advance that all data they provide in the Survey can be placed in the public domain. For further information, email fadrafit@imf.org