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About the missions of the Direction Générale des Finances Publiques (Directorate General of Public Finance)

The direction générale des finances publiques (DGFiP (General Directorate for Public Finance (Ministry for the Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform)) ) came into existence in April 2008 from the merging of the direction générale des impôts (the Tax Office) and the direction générale de la comptabilité publique (Directorate General of Public Accounting), an operation on an unprecedented scale. Grouped together under a single directorate, at a central level and across the whole territory, are 5,000 services and 125,000 agents.

The different missions of the DGFiP (General Directorate for Public Finance (Ministry for the Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform)) place it at the centre of French financial public life both at national and local levels. These missions relate to both taxation and public management. They depend on the unified management of support functions such as human resources, management control, budget and information systems.

For taxation and land matters, the DGFiP (General Directorate for Public Finance (Ministry for the Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform)) prepares and clarifies the legislation and regulations.

  • It deals with the declarations of businesses and individuals, calculates and collects taxes from businesses and individuals (State taxes and local taxes) and implements, if required, the procedures necessary for collection. It collects local taxes on behalf of local authorities and returns the product to them.
  • It deals with contentious and non-contentious claims, with regard to assessment and collection.
  • As part of its land-related missions, it assesses land tax, prepares cadastral data and carries out the formalities of recording and land registration.

The missions of public management concern the State and the Local Authorities.

Broad Outlines of international cooperation of the DGFiP in matters of taxation

The DGFIP mainly comes into play in the following topic:
  • The fight against fraud:

The theme of fiscal control under its various headings (intelligence gathering, risk analysis, exchange of information, procedures and methods of control, control of VAT, transfer pricing policy...) is tackled with a great number of countries as a priority.

The DGFIP (General Directorate for Public Finance (Ministry for the Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform)) thus assists its foreign counterparts in the fight against VAT fraud, including intra-community VAT fraud, which is a major concern of the European Commission, and the sensitive subject of the refund of VAT credits, but also the fight against the black market economy, especially in terms of intelligence gathering, the fight against international tax fraud, and more particularly its main component, the problem of transfer pricing.

Assistance includes legal and procedural aspects, but also methodological aspects, such as the assisted programming of IT and risk-analysis tools and the management of risk-control operations on-site, notably concerning the large companies for whom DGFiP (General Directorate for Public Finance (Ministry for the Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform)) provides specialised services. Support may consist of a knowledge transfer with the implementation of teaching supports adapted to the recipient country (manuals, methodological guides, etc...) or directly via seminars or training sessions.

Thus, in recent years, the expertise of the DGFiP (General Directorate for Public Finance (Ministry for the Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform)) in terms of the fight against international tax fraud has been sought by Romania (twinning) and Russia, keen to develop a device for exchanging information. More specifically, the problem of transfer pricing, an essential component of international fiscal control, has been addressed with Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Ukraine, Morocco, Brazil (within the framework of the CIAT (The Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT) supports the efforts of national governments by promoting the institutional strengthening of tax administrations ...) ), Uruguay and within the scope of CREDAF (Conference and Study Center for Tax Administration Managers. The CREDAF gathers 29 French-speaking countries. It aims at promoting dialogue between Tax Administration ...) . In this regard, the device for prior agreements in force in France is popular with foreign partners.

Similarly, the topics of intelligence gathering and risk analysis, essential for the effective programming of control operations have resulted in action in several countries (Morocco, Cameroon, Gabon, Ecuador, Vietnam...).

The organisation of fiscal control, methods and procedures, particularly with regard to large enterprises, for which the DGFiP (General Directorate for Public Finance (Ministry for the Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform)) provides specialised services, were finally discussed with Russia, Ukraine, Morocco, Tunisia (twinning) , Lebanon (VAT twinning) Vietnam, Colombia (within the scope of CIAT (The Inter-American Center of Tax Administrations (CIAT) supports the efforts of national governments by promoting the institutional strengthening of tax administrations ...) ), Guatemala and Mexico.

  • Steering, internal control and risk management:

The French government has committed itself, in the years since 1995, to an approach of contractualisation of objectives and steering based on performance. The DGFiP (General Directorate for Public Finance (Ministry for the Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform)) is a pioneer in this field and has set up provisions for steering and management control to track activity and performance of services. The DGFiP (General Directorate for Public Finance (Ministry for the Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform)) has been revising its procedures for internal audit and control for some years, notably by developing risk maps. Currently, it is developing a comprehensive system of risk management to improve the efficiency and reliability of the processes across its services.

The steering of large administrations on a like-for-like basis is an increasingly frequent topic of our cooperation (twinnings funded by the European Union in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, Lebanon, Tunisia, ...) but also numerous bilateral activities in Latin America, North Africa, Russia, Ukraine, Moldova... Note that in 2009 a seminar in Paris bringing together tax and treasury administrations of Russia on the subject of steering large administrations on a like-for-like basis and, in 2010, the same kind of seminar in Moscow on management control.

  • Taxpayers' compliance and the user service:

User service, which by the leverage it provides on tax compliance, is a central concern of tax authorities, is addressed in many countries and under different headings: the setting up of call centres in Morocco, in Moldova and in Poland (twinning), quality standards in the tax offices in Poland (twinning), RPC techniques in Morocco, Moldova and Poland, a pre-filled-in declaration in Hungary, a single point of contact for large companies in Bulgaria (twinning), Algeria (partnership between the managements of large companies), Morocco, Tunisia (twinning), user hosting and communication in Benin, DRC, Romania and Senegal, within the framework of CREDAF (Conference and Study Center for Tax Administration Managers. The CREDAF gathers 29 French-speaking countries. It aims at promoting dialogue between Tax Administration ...) .

  • Human Resources management and training:

Highly experienced training schools for careers in taxation play an essential long-term role in international cooperation activities. Each year, the tax and land sectors of the Ecole Nationale des Finances Publiques (National School of Public Finance) welcomes around thirty interns from different countries who follow the training course for inspectors over the course of a year. A catalogue of shorter (2-3 weeks) training is also offered to around 150 civil servants from foreign partner administrations.

The DGFiP (General Directorate for Public Finance (Ministry for the Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform)) also provides support to projects creating training facilities adapted to careers in taxation. It provides, in this context, a service of instructional design. This applies, for example in Algeria (partnership with the School of KOLEA), but also in other countries through twinning (creation of a vocational training centre for officials of the Bulgarian National Revenue Agency - extensive overhaul of training provision in Tunisia) or in bilateral matters (Serbia, Moldova... )

  • Information systems:

The DGFiP has committed, under the COPERNICUS Programme, to a large-scale renovation of its information system with the creation of national databases and new applications to improve user service and to modernise internal processes. From now on, the taxpayer has online access to their tax account, from which it may declare and pay remotely.

The support of the DGFiP (General Directorate for Public Finance (Ministry for the Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform)) to its foreign counterparts is demonstrated by technical assistance from its IT specialists who can, if necessary, assist in drafting specifications with a view to implementing risk-analysis applications, IT dashboards, etc. (twinning funded by the European Union in Bulgaria, Romania, Tunisia, Hungary, Lebanon...).

  • Legislation on direct taxes and VAT:

This topic, important in light of the adoption of the EU acquis, has been dealt with in the many twinnings financed by the European Union. It covers various aspects of legislation:

  • the introduction of the basic directive on VAT (twinning in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia) or principles of VAT (twinning in Lebanon, missions in Syria),
  • the best European practices in relation to direct taxes, which resulted in the distribution of a guide to judgements of the Court of Justice of European Communities (twinning in Bulgaria),
  • the transposition of the directive in terms of mergers of companies (twinning in Romania, Bulgaria), the transposition of the savings directive (twinning in Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, Albania).

The topic of property taxation is also very often addressed with countries engaged in major reforms in this area (Russia, Cambodia and Vietnam). Taxation based on the environment and raw materials (mining and petroleum products) is increasingly requested (Russia...).

  • Collection:

The topic of the collection has been a great success given the procedural means available to the French tax administration and the performance management that it has implemented for many years in this field.
Cooperation for the benefit of its foreign counterparts deals with the procedures of amicable and forced collection, the means to monitor debts and tax revenues, the establishment of a dashboard of arrears (3 twinnings in Romania, Bulgaria), but also activities in Moldova, Morocco, Mexico, Vietnam (forced recovery measures).

  • The modernisation strategy:

The DGFiP (General Directorate for Public Finance (Ministry for the Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform)) is increasingly being asked to provide its experience in the context of major modernisation projects with multiple components and primarily focused on structural reorganisations, the establishment of structures, new methods and procedures. This has been the case in Bulgaria, Romania and Tunisia in the framework of twinning, in Serbia in bilateral matters. 

  • Land registration:

Significant support has been provided to Algeria (in the framework of the Ministerial Agreement of 2005 and the memorandum of 2008) and in Tunisia, where the DGFiP (General Directorate for Public Finance (Ministry for the Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform)) recently conducted a twinning on the establishment of a land information system (in partnership with IGN - DGFiP (General Directorate for Public Finance (Ministry for the Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform)) leader). Furthermore, activities were carried out in the Ivory Coast, interested in the French experience. Support in Haiti is currently underway.

The participation to international networks

Through this creative activity and network organisation, the DGFiP (General Directorate for Public Finance (Ministry for the Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform)) involves not only asserting its experience and its expertise on its business, but also to create the conditions for joint reflection and sharing of experiences and of best practices between governments confronted, to varying degrees, by the same structuring changes affecting the management of tax administrations.

For more information:

Article written by the DGFiP (General Directorate for Public Finance (Ministry for the Budget, Public Accounts and State Reform)) Mission for International Cooperation,
February 2011

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