Digital Transformation of the Moroccan General Directorate of Taxes and Improvement of Tax Audit Performance: A Semi-Systematic Review

Abstract

This article examines the mechanisms through which the digital transformation of Morocco’s Directorate General of Taxes (DGI) improves the performance of tax control. While existing studies mainly address the dematerialization of tax services, revenue mobilization, or taxpayer satisfaction separately, this research proposes an integrated perspective focused on the value chain of tax control: data collection and interconnection, risk analysis, case targeting, procedure automation, and compliance monitoring. The study adopts a semi-systematic review of the literature published between 2019 and 2025, supplemented by key conceptual and institutional sources. Searches conducted in Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar, as well as in the grey literature, led to the identification of 85 documents. After removing 13 duplicates, screening 72 titles and abstracts, and assessing 46 full texts, 29 studies were selected for the final synthesis. The findings show that digitalization strengthens the performance of tax control through four main channels: improving data quality, enabling risk-based targeting, reducing manual tasks, and increasing traceability. It also contributes to revenue mobilization and voluntary compliance. However, its effects remain contingent upon cybersecurity, personal data protection, the reduction of the digital divide, and the adaptation of tax officers’ skills. The originality of this article therefore lies in linking the technological, organizational, legal, and relational dimensions of tax digitalization, as well as in identifying the intermediary mechanisms that connect digital tools to the performance of tax control in the Moroccan context.