Service innovation in the complex environment of tax administration: the Indonesian public sector perspective

Abstract

Providing straightforward and inexpensive public services is a necessity in public administration including in the field of tax administration. To simplify the tax administration process, the Indonesian Directorate General of Taxes (DGT) has initiated an electronic tax service project, e-tax service. This e-tax service consists of e-registration, e-payment and e-filing. Using institutional theory, this paper aims to study the process and the challenges in implementing the e-tax service in Indonesia. The findings show that institutional power and pressures, institutional settings, and institutional politics have affected the Indonesian tax authority's ability to deploy the e-tax system. Consequently, the e-tax initiative could not be fully implemented because of institutional setting and institutional politics.