According to the Communication and Information Center in the Vice Presidency of Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy, today, a meeting was held between Hossein Afshin, Vice President of Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy, and Seyyed Mohammad Hadi Sobhanian, Director General of the National Tax Affairs Organization, regarding solutions for making the tax system smarter, developing the organization's artificial intelligence assistant, and facilitating the process of companies' access to tax credit facilities under the Knowledge-Based Production Leap Law.

The movement to make governance smarter by supporting artificial intelligence assistants in executive agencies

The Vice President of Science described the development of the executive agencies' artificial intelligence assistant as part of the country's smartization movement, focusing on facilitating government affairs, and added: "We are helping agencies to take forward and effective steps in the country's smart governance by leveraging the role of prominent universities and capable knowledge-based companies, while accelerating and facilitating processes."

Afshin continued: "We are trying to promote the culture of using artificial intelligence technology and stimulate the market in this field, and we have started this work from the government. The artificial intelligence economy must be based on proper support and foundation; accordingly, knowledge-based companies and universities are supported so that the fruits of it reach the government itself."

Afshin stated that the implementation of the Artificial Intelligence Assistant project in the Tax Affairs Organization could be a suitable model for using technology to provide desirable services to the people, adding: "The extremely large and increasing volume of tax numbers, along with the time-consuming nature of the processes, can lead to slowness and create numerous dissatisfactions. On the other hand, identifying new taxpayers is essential for the country's tax affairs, and this can be achieved accurately and comprehensively with the help of artificial intelligence technology."

By providing tax big data to AI tools, tax processes can be accelerated and satisfaction rates can be increased. Given the Ministry of Economy and Finance’s embrace of AI development and support for the penetration of technologies and innovations into this area, the Tax Administration was specifically targeted to benefit from AI assistants.

The head of the National Elites Foundation, emphasizing that the development of an AI assistant in the Tax Affairs Organization will benefit the people and the government, continued: "This organization has two sides, one side is the government, which deals with a huge volume of tax data, related tasks and processes, numerous taxpayers, and a multitude of objections; therefore, using AI capabilities to facilitate these processes, better access to available resources, and increase productivity, accuracy, and quality of work on the part of the government will be efficient. The other side is the people, who are faced with mostly slow and time-consuming processes, and the use of AI tools can ultimately lead to increased satisfaction among the tax community."

Afshin, pointing out that the development of the AI ​​assistant in the Tax Affairs Organization is being carried out in cooperation with knowledge-based and operational companies, continued: "Currently, the development of the AI ​​assistant is being carried out in cooperation with 12 universities, and the Ministry of Economy is also among the audiences of this program, but we have defined the Planning and Budget Organization and the Tax Affairs Organization separately from the Ministry of Economy, considering their potential capacity, volume, and scope of work, and these two organizations will have special AI assistants. Given the high importance of the Planning and Budget Organization and the Tax Affairs Organization and the fact that they have direct influence or interaction with the people, their processes must be facilitated using data, so we are advancing the mission of developing the AI ​​assistant in these two organizations in cooperation with knowledge-based companies."

Emphasizing the cooperation of the Tax Affairs Organization in sharing big data to improve the performance of the AI ​​assistant, he said: "The good cooperation of the Tax Affairs Organization in providing this data helps the overflow of outputs to have a positive impact on improving the performance of this organization. Good measures have been taken to provide infrastructure for the development of artificial intelligence so that the algorithms can be mounted on a native and secure platform. Fortunately, all the structures of this platform have been localized, and the entire process of data processing and output presentation takes place in a secure environment within the country."

 Creating a specialized and intelligent tax office for knowledge-based companies

According to the Vice President of Science, Technology and Knowledge-Based Economy, the development of tools based on artificial intelligence technology in the Tax Affairs Organization is a constructive measure that can facilitate the tax issues of knowledge-based companies; accordingly, the first virtual and intelligent tax office for knowledge-based companies will be created using artificial intelligence based on the cooperation of the Deputy for Science, the Tax Affairs Organization, and knowledge-based companies, which will achieve intelligent and accurate handling of the requests of this category of Tax Affairs Organization audiences in accordance with the laws of the technology and innovation ecosystem.

Realization of tax exemption for research and development of knowledge-based companies

The Vice President of Science, emphasizing the commitment and adherence of the Tax Affairs Organization and the Vice Presidency of Science to implement tax exemption for research and development of knowledge-based companies, stated: In an agreement reached between the Tax Affairs Organization and the Vice Presidency of Science, the Vice Presidency of Science and the Tax Affairs Organization have committed to implementing Articles 11 and 13 of the Law on the Leap of Knowledge-Based Production Based on the Allocation of Research and Development Tax Credit Support and are committed to implementing this law.

He added: "One of the problems that existed was that in order to receive tax credit facilities, companies had to first pay taxes and wait until the results of the reviews and eligibility for exemption were announced to them. Fortunately, the issue has also been corrected based on the agreement reached between the Tax Affairs Organization and the Vice Presidency of Science."