SPED and Tax Compliance Costs in Brazil

The Public Digital Bookkeeping System (SPED) was developed with the intention of providing greater integration between tax administrations themselves, and between them and taxpayers through the use of technology and, consequently, standardised socio-economic data in a single environment, thereby increasing tax collection efficiency and reducing administration costs (public sector) and tax compliance costs (private sector). This book aims to contribute to the analysis of public spending directed towards the establishment and maintenance of SPED in terms of its effectiveness in reducing taxpayers’ tax compliance costs using the regulatory impact assessment model developed and applied by the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) in its country. The results obtained indicate that SPED caused an increase in temporary and permanent compliance costs, mainly due to the implementation strategy defined and applied solely by the public administration. The study also showed a certain tendency to transfer administration costs to taxpayers’ compliance costs, which is not acceptable.