One of the concerns of the modern tax administrations is to help taxpayers to fulfill their obligations. With this objective in mind, in 2018 in the General Tax Directorate (DGI) of Uruguay has implemented a pilot plan to provide a service through the popular WhatsApp application.

The project includes currently a simple tax, levied on real properties, based on the cadastral value. Thus, it is sufficient that the taxpayer identifies the location and register number of its property and the DGI can supply the amount of its debt and the corresponding invoice. This service was already available on the web, but it was decided to incorporate this new channel, fast, available 24 hours a day, and it works on an widespread application, used by the general public, which sometimes is perceived as even more simple and intuitive than navigating through a website.

Consequently, once the database with real estate and taxation was generated, we proceeded to make the “tree” of questions and answers, to respond automatically to the taxpayer´s request.

Through three simple questions, we obtain the information necessary to report the tax amount to the taxpayer and add the link from where he or she can get his or her invoice. Consider an example, with the information when a message is send to the DGI’s number (+598 98 966 993):

Thus, in a very fast and friendly way you can obtain the invoice for payment of the tax. In the first month of operation, more than 50,000 messages were received, opening a new service channel with taxpayers.

Ultimately, this new technology allows us to approach taxpayers with better services, in an efficient manner, and with reasonable costs.

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