Blockchain’s potential and opportunities for tax administrations: a systematic review

Abstract

The development of Blockchain applications is still at an early stage, considering that, after 13 years of the Bitcoin introduction, cryptocurrencies remain the single example of a well-established Blockchain system. On the other hand, the digitalization of taxes and its underlying processes is gaining speed worldwide, with not only developed countries adopting it. This trend can be the foundation of a Blockchain integration to the tax system, so that this domain could take advantage of desired inherent features offered by the technology, such as transparency, security, immutability and real-time information. Consequently, tax authorities would achieve higher revenue levels and improve compliance tracking, reducing tax evasion and fraud. At the same time, taxpayers would benefit from reduced tax compliance costs and better experiences through more efficient processes. Therefore, this work aims at investigating the state of the art within the field of Blockchain application on taxation, in order to drive new researches that could close current gaps and to support the development of new applications.