Proposed Model for Electronic Tax Services in the Palestinian Ministry of Finance

This study aims to build an electronic model for tax services in Palestine and to show the key milestones that this model depends on, the study results illustrate the nature of this model and the obstacles faced by the application of electronic tax services in the Palestinian Ministry of Finance. This study gained its importance from the topic it deals with as all nations with their various capabilities and wealth strive to catch up with technology and provide the best and most accurate services for taxpayers. The study, according to the researcher knowledge, is the first of its kind in Palestine as what addressed this topic before are just workshops or conferences that dealt with the E-government in general and not electronic tax services. In order to complete this study the researcher relied on secondary resources as references and books that dealt with E-government in general as a framework that contains the electronic services for taxes as well as reports and newsletters that dealt with this subject. The researcher conducted a number of interviews with specialists, he also developed a questionnaire which he used from previous studies and then he developed it to fit the general framework of this study. The study concluded the model parameters according to the following: 1. Enacting a law for electronic tax services in order to legalize the use of electronic transactions. 2. Creating a tax culture as the preparation of citizens in general and taxpayers in particular to receive this service needs an organized effort and a well-knit strategy. 3. Creating an infrastructure for the proposed electronic system that includes the following: 3.1 Human resources: the well-trained staff is the base of the transition from the traditional system to the electronic system as well as the creation of an integrated and applicable electronic tax system. 3.2 Administrative structure: providing such services needs a change in the internal combination of the various structures of tax departments. 3.3 Electronic tax programs: these programs are fundamental in the application of electronic services program for tax services as you cannot provide such services without the presence of strong electronic programs. 3.4 Database: this database is considered one of the most important components of the electronic services system as the strength of this system in terms of the smooth design leads to high-speed electronic services. The researcher concluded a number of challenges facing the application of this proposed model as follows: 1. The low visibility of the vision, mission and goals of the Ministry of Finance which may negatively affect the provision of such model. 2. This model needs to adopt the senior management and support; this may not be available if someone feels that there is a threat to his administrative position. 3. The weakness of the current infrastructure of the ministry of finance despite the existence of many computers and databases as we need huge systems, electronic archiving systems and data storage systems. 4. The absence of the legislative council meetings to enact the necessary legislations to apply this model. 5. The choice of the appropriate staff to apply this model or doing an intensive training especially for those who are not specialized in taxes or those who don’t have technological skills which are needed to apply this model. 6. The obtainment of the necessary funding as all walks of life that are needed by citizens should be linked to the e-government and this takes huge financial allocations. 7. The high rates of change in information and communication technology which may lead to a difficulty in keeping pace with these changes which need large amount of money to keep up with. 8. The increasing rates of disguised unemployment as the application of such model will require fewer number of highly trained employees.