The IRAS Story◎Ng Keat Seng, Lee Su Shyan

The IRAS Story chronicles how Singapore's tax authority evolved from the Singapore Income Tax Department set up in 1948 to administer income tax only, to the Inland Revenue Department that took charge of several taxes from 1960, and finally to the Inland Revenue Authority of Singapore in 1992, a key national institution that the World Bank has cited as a model for tax administrations.

IRAS' people tell us their story.  And it is a fascinating one, of coping with documents galore, irate taxpayers, fraud and tax evasion.  But then, like a symphony that soars above the cacophony, the IRAS players put up a class act.  It began using technology creatively to achieve one of the lowest costs of tax collection and highest rates of voluntary compliance in the world, and kept up the tempo by responding robustly to a global environment that is becoming more complex and less predictable.