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.

Una simulación de nivel intermedio para participantes que ya conocen los conceptos básicos de la materia, pensada para programas de máster y MBA.