To elaborate, how common is it to do most administrative related work online, such as filing taxes, paying the rent, sending money across borders, purchasing a car, apartment, etc. ?
I’ve heard that in Sweden you literally just have to click “Ok” on a government webpage for your taxes to be sorted out for you, and that everything is so conveniently organized from financial transfers, to medical bills, etc.
So, how are things in your country in this regard?
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I’d guess a lot less in Southern Italy than in Sweden!
Here,there are certain things which should be possible to do digitally.But I think the vast majority of stuff is still done in person,when possible…either because the digital system doesn’t exist,or doesn’t work properly.or people just prefer to do it the traditional way.
Everything is digital but nothing is “sorted out” although tax filings are pre-filled (you are still responsible for a proper filing though)
Most administrative government and financial tasks can be carried out online.
For government tasks, you have a single sign on system, which makes it a lot easier.
There is even an app which quite a few municipalities use that you can use to report issues in public spaces. Things like overflowing bins, broken streetlights, flooding etc
I haven’t done anything like that on paper for at least a decade apart from filling out an application for a rental apartment (that’s often online as well). I even signed my last work contract digitally. I don’t have a car and haven’t bought property so don’t know how that works but I’ve only ever used online banking for bills, starting in the late 90s. Before that people used forms where you filled out the payment details and mailed it to the bank, it’s not a check and I guess it’s still possible to use them? I have a banking app I use to pay my bills. They’re either paid automatically or I scan the bar code on the bill to get the details. You only need the bank account number to send money domestically. Sending money across borders is easy if the other bank account uses IBAN and BIC. When I was an exchange student in the Netherlands I was subletting a room from a Dutch student. I know that some people who were renting directly from a student housing organization had to go to their office and pay by card while I just got the formula to change a Dutch account number to IBAN from her bank’s website and used my Finnish online bank to pay the rent. This was in 2005.
I have applied for unemployment benefits online, I sometimes order from outside the EU and do the customs declaration online in a few minutes (they also accept MobilePay for tax payments). I do my taxes online but you don’t really file them here. You get mailed a suggestion by the tax authority, you should check it and if everything’s in order you don’t have to do anything. I have some deductions so I do them online, it usually takes me maybe ten minutes at most.
Not everything is digital. There are still many forms which need to be filled, printed out and sent. No stamp is required for most of them, but many people say you should always send them with registered post, which costs money.
There is a sort of a mailbox where you can receive and read correspondence from some administrative entities, but you cannot reply back nor can you send anything on your own. Also, not everything arrives through there, some mail gets only delivered on paper. For example, getting a VAT number is a process where you need to wait for two printed letters (one containing an internal tax id, another with the VAT number) to arrive physically at your door step. No copies of which are visible in that mailbox.
The tax thing applies to Latvia too. You only have to manually register any payments (receipts) that are tax deductable (in the government website or using an app) and have to manually register any information that was done off the grid, e.g. if you received more than 10k in cash from a relative.
So in general most paperwork can be done digitally if you have set up your electronic signature.
I live in Sweden, but I have lived in both Norway and Finland as well. Moving there made me realise how extremely comfortable he have it in Sweden compared to other countries.
Yes taxes are super easy, I usually just send a sms to confirm them but I think most people today login by using their digital id card and just approve it.
In Denmark the eGovernance is not just for convenience it is a cost saving measure, and the default means of communication is online.
In Denmark we have ‘forced digitalization’, 10 years ago my 75 year old mum was signed up to receive all communication online, including call in for medical checks, even though she had never been using a computer before. (They gave her a 10 min. computer crash-curse at the community center when they signed her up, we have to go to hoops to get that canceled)
The municipals have been joined together to larger units, with longer distance to a citizen service office. The public service office is basically by appointment, you can’t just show up, you need to book a time online first 😐
I can easily find places where the transport time via. public transport to a municipal office is more than one hour, and there are only a few buses a day. (This is a problem for a person that can’t use computers, or drive a car)
If you can navigate in the online world then you basically only need to go to a citizen service office to renew your passport. (We Dont have ID cards, so we need a passport to visit other Schengen countries).
This is a small example of what you can online:
[https://www-borger-dk.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=da&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp#](https://www-borger-dk.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=da&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp#)
Everything is digital… Taxes are done online, actually, unless you have any changes you don’t even need to confirm them… Doing nothing assumes you are okay with what had been reported automatically! Of course you should at least check that the right thing has been reported, but you don’t have to do that.
Paying for stuff is all digital, not a lot of people use cash, you can’t even use cheques anymore since a couple of years!
The only thing I can remember that I had to sign on paper was when I got married 4 years ago, and even then the rest of the process we had to go through leading up to it, was all online.
Everything you mentioned is almost always done digitally
>I’ve heard that in Sweden you literally just have to click “Ok” on a government webpage for your taxes to be sorted out for you
Here in Norway we don’t even have to do that anymore, we get taxes pre-filled and if we don’t need to change anything we don’t have to do anything.
Anyway, yes, basically everything is digitized here. I haven’t used cash or filled in a paper form for many years.
Yes.
So taxes are online and the usual stuff is automatically imported from the database, you only have to fill stuff if you have investments or something atypical going on (and for investments, you can also send your investment-account info quite automatically).
Rent is normally paid via a transfer (but some people want cash if they avoid taxes, but even some who avoid taxes ask for a transfer). If you have to buy stuff from abroad, it is usually a credit card payment, though sometimes you use online transfer.
Buying an apartment is always online imo. Most cars, too, though I guess that varies.
We don’t really get medical bills.
I mean we do use online banking for a lot of stuff like everyone, but other than that Germany is probably the least digitized country in Europe.
There are still places that are cash only, paying cash even for stuff like electronics or used cars is still done and anything to do with administrative stuff is done via mail and paper by default. Only very rarely is it possible to fully complete any task dealing with administrative matters without having to go to some office or sending a letter at least once.
Also from the backend side of things, even if you send an email to your city administration or some public office, it will be printed out and put into a folder somewhere.
We have basically everything online. ID issue, banking, shopping, heathcare issues, doctor appointments, prescriptions, retairments funds, loans, highway tolls, plane/train/bus/metor/parking ticets, most of the taxes are being automatically calculated. We have government app with digital ID if you cannot verify you identity by banking app. Can’t remember when last time I was in some kind of governal/administrative office.
filling taxes – can be done but it is not as easy as to do just couple of clicks. But for most of the employees it is just “sign this here and here” and the rest is done by employer
paying the rent, sending money across borders, purchasing a car, apartment – these are all done mostly by wire transfer and internet banking is a thing for over 20 – 25 years
What’s digitalisation? Ok, tbh, as time goes by more and more forms that are being transferred online, but it is been done quite badly, so most of the time it is better to do things in person or in paper rather than searching and filling them online. Like, you never know in which part of the site forms are located or where to send them and how to send them, because the sites are not very self-descriptive, and it kills me because I have 0 patience so it becomes easier waiting 4 hours in a hot office.
We have had prefilled taxes for decades, even before Internet (you had them delivered on paper by mail). They are considered a draft, you are supposed to check them thoroughly, but most people just click the “Yeah, whatever” button. In case you validate a draft with mistakes, you can be hold liable for them.
All the examples you mentioned are or can be done online (I find buying a car online absurd, though). The digitalization of government burocracy is very high, but it has an almost universal issue: the unreliability and extremely confusing, outdated, clumsy and unintuitive design of about every single government website. Sometimes you just give up and go do it the old style. We should have an UIX ministry!
>To elaborate, how common is it to do most administrative related work online, such as filing taxes.
Many of the systems used to create online service, predate public use of internet with 20-30 years, some of the foundation was created in the late 60’s.
I have had to fill out tax forms since 1985, as as far as I remember it was more or less just to sign the forms, unless you had deductibles like for travel distance to work.
I just looked in some of my old tax papers, the oldest I still have is from 1993.
The send you a tax form, it had most of the fields prefilled with information they already had, like salary, prepaid tax, interest in banks etc. Then there was a column for correcting/adding values, and then you sign it, and send it in.
A month later you got a new form based on the update, and it includes a money order (Giro Card), or a check.
In 1995 they implemented a service where you could change the fields ‘online’ with a DTMF phone, it had a number code printed on the tax form to sign-in with.
In 2001 an internet system was added, but it still used the number code to sign in with the phone, or internet.
In 2004 tax papers mentioned login via. a real digital signature, where you had to install a public key certificate on our PC in order to login.
In 2010 The sign-in system was replaced with NemID. (Not a real real digital signature)
20 years ago we saw the start of reduction in the locations from where it was possible to pay a money order, or cashing a check in a Post Office or Bank. Since 2017 handling money by going to an office has ben closed completely, you need to be online to pay, or get money.
This problem was discussed in a news article from 2003: [https://www.berlingske.dk/oekonomi/regeringen-vil-stoppe-lukning-af-postbutikker](https://www.berlingske.dk/oekonomi/regeringen-vil-stoppe-lukning-af-postbutikker)
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> paying the rent, sending money across borders, purchasing a car, apartment, etc. ?
The danish system for automatic payment was started in 1968, in the 80’s it was handling automatic payment of giro cards (for recurring expenses like rent), but I dont know when it started to be used in this way by consumers.
[https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nets](https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nets)
I haven’t sent money abroad recently ( except by paying bills) but there are hardly any bank offices left (and the ones that exist are for negotiating bigger loans and things like that), so it kinda has to be done online.
Almost everything in our lives is digital, even things that require our signature is digital, as we have something called electronic ID that is connected with our SIM card. And in many cases it isn’t really a choice, as using older methods will either not be available or cost money.
I haven’t used my bank cards, physical ID or filled out physical paperwork for a few years now. It has gotten so “bad” that I will avoid businesses that require me to call for an appointment rather than making one online.
As for taxes, I’m 33 now and I have never filed my taxes on paper, they been online since before I was 16, and unless you are self employed then usually you just look over the information and then press ok.
Nearly everything can be done online with just few clicks, including taxes. Medical bills are not a thing at all because if you are insured, it is not your business.
Based on my experience, in Romania you can set up a company, do your accounting and pay your taxes completely online. For the corporate bank account you’ll need to visit a local bank, but a physical person can open a personal bank account online. Other than that you can order anything on the Internet, from large appliances to fresh food, pay bills, fines etc, and most if not all shops accept contactless payments even in the smaller cities.
Note regarding accounting and taxes: you still have to do the math yourself 😕
Almost all mail is electronic, pay bills online, use my phone to pay in stores, I can order groceries for pickup or sent home, handymen for booking online and I can identify myself with an app.
Things are pretty good in the UK:
>filing taxes
Most people’s income tax is deducted automatically through a system called [Pay As You Earn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pay-as-you-earn_tax). If you’re self-employed you can file taxes through the Gov.uk [website](https://www.gov.uk/self-assessment-tax-returns).
>paying the rent
This would probably depend on your Landlord. I would be surprised if you couldn’t set up a recurring [Direct Debit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_debit) with most people now, though.
>sending money across borders
We have Paypal, and of course there are systems like SWIFT and IBAN for sending money internationally.
If you’re sending money to a friend it’s really simple. All of our major banks support [paym](https://paym.co.uk) so there’s one system that works identically for everyone. We don’t need apps like Venmo or Cash App.
>purchasing a car
We have sites like Cazoo and Cinch that claim to be entirely online. I haven’t used either of them, so I don’t know how the financial side of it works.
>apartment
Not sure on thus. We have property listings online like Zoopla, Rightmove etc. You’d probably have to visit a bank in person to apply for a mortgage.
We don’t really “do” taxes in Finland. The tax office sends you message that your pre-filled template is now available on the tax website. You can check it and make some corrections if needed, for example home office deductions during COVID. If you don’t have any special things just click OK.
I bought an apartment – the bank loan and purchase was entirely done online. Signing was done electronically.
I went to the hospital for a blood test (pre-covid) – the result was available one day after online.
Paying rent (or paying your loan) is automatic, you just tick a box in your online bank to make it reoccuring for a specified length of time.
I’m in my mid-30s and I’ve never bought a stamp. I worked in a bank for 2 years and I’ve still never even seen
a cheque.
Both in NL and Spain most of the government tasks can be carried out online.
Germany is typically very mixed. I do all my billing, accounts and taxes digitally, but get the results of the annual tax declaration in a letter.
Then the health insurance company wants the results digitally, but will not accept E-Mail, so I have to set up an account on their website to upload documents, and in order to do this, I have to use a password that they send by post. Thankfully the post is reliable here, and next-day delivery is almost guaranteed.
The only times I’ve actually had to visit a physical location for something official recently were connected to taking out German citizenship (one interview in person and an in-person appointment to pick up my ID card).
I’ve gotta say that these countries with prefilled tax forms look surreal to me, we don’t have to fill out anything, but the whole concept that the state actually knows your income outside your daily job sounds so impossible for B&H because they don’t. And they do have access to bank interests and medical bills in general, but almost no one can refund them and they don’t even bother to look.
Most of it`? Got my taxes recently, on the 15th they’ll open the portal for declaring it and like you say you just have to check it and click “okay” essentially. All my banking is digital, cash isn’t common. Interacting with authorities and/or government agencies are for the most part done through digital means. Medical bills aren’t really a thing here? Like sure they’ll make you pay 10€ for a visit and send you an invoice after a week. Some regions do it digitally I think? Some don’t? Mine doesnt at least, but just scan the invoice with you bank app and sign the payment and done.
No no no, you have to check that it looks ok, *then* click ok
Very. Estonia has been named the world’s most advanced digital society. The only things you can’t do online is getting married or getting divorced.
It’s funny that you mention filing taxes because you’ll probably find that your country is the odd one out and has a very complex tax filing system. In the UK, taxes just automatically get deducted from our income and we all have a national insurance number so there’s no running from the big, fat tax man (not much anyway).
As for everything else – rent is usually paid as direct debit or online transfer, same as money being sent across borders. Paying out for big things *can* be done online but down the line somewhere, a bit of paper must be signed. I have “digitally signed” documents before but I’m still not a fan of it. We haven’t got our heads around digital signatures just yet. Or maybe we have, just not built trust in them.
Job applications are mostly done online now. I say “mostly” but it probably goes for 95% of jobs. There was a time about 15 or 20 years ago when the tradition was for a 16 year old to take a massive bundle of their CV’s down the shopping centre and hand them out to every shop. I did this 3 years ago and most of the shops said to go online, but a few took my CV and a couple of them wanted me too. Everyone my age was saying I won’t get a job because this is too old-fashioned but it worked for me!
Banking can be done 100% online now. I get paperless statements that can only be accessed via my phones app. When it comes to talking to the bank about an issue, I still use the branches because its literally faster to wake up, shower, shave, get dressed, go toilet, crawl to the bank, speak to them, sort your problem out and walk home via the scenic route than it is to get through to someone on the phone. It’s a joke. I don’t know if it’s just my bank.
Edit – To add, I feel like we *can* go more digital but don’t want to. Like what I say about the digital signatures, why would I trust that? As for banking, takes too long over the phone. Food, why order that in when I can *see* that my food isn’t about to expire? Reading this thread, it seems some of you are way more advanced than mine and OP’s countries but I feel like we could, it’s just something that we all know probably wouldn’t go well for us.
I work in UK benefits, and it’s almost entirely digitized now. You have to provide good reason to not handle your claims online, such as no Internet access.