Recaudar sin Ahogar

The head of finance of a fictional Colombian municipality has to raise local tax revenue over a four-year term without choking the businesses that produce it: a property tax paid only in part on cadastral values from 2012, large taxpayers who under-declare business tax, 15,000 small businesses of which 5,200 are registered, and COP 95,000 million of arrears that prescribe a little every quarter.

Decision 1 (February 2028): whom to target (everyone alike, taxpayer segments with their own strategy, or only the largest); the tax base (raise the rates, freeze everything, or update the cadastre in stages and clean up the register); and how progress is measured.

Decision 2 (July 2028): how bills are issued and paid, including a collection firm on commission; the message taxpayers receive (the usual threat, tested letters with social norms and what the tax paid for, or a raffle); and small businesses (raids and fines, a simple regime, or a ten-year exemption).

Decision 3 (April 2029): the arrears (in order of arrival, triage by age and collectability, or a mass seizure without checking title or prescription); audits of the large taxpayers; and the council amnesty on interest and penalties, including a proposed decree that forgives the tax itself.

Decision 4 (March 2030): what is done with the additional money, who manages collection (contractors, a permanent revenue unit, or a ten-year concession on commission), and what is reported at the accountability hearing.

The model is deterministic and quarter by quarter: compliance by segment moves toward targets set by the decisions, arrears are recovered or prescribe, and small businesses register, stay open or close; commissions and programmes are paid from a fiscal strengthening fund, and when it runs out on-time payment deteriorates.

The score combines the quality of each decision with additional revenue, voluntary compliance, a small-business formality and survival index and taxpayer trust, and is capped when a decision breaks the law (seizures without an enforceable title or on prescribed debts, a tax forgiven by mayoral decree). Spanish (primary, Colombia) and English.

An intermediate simulation for participants who already know the core concepts of the subject, designed for master's and MBA programmes.