Big Data and Artificial Intelligence: the challenges for (tax) authorities

Mijn onderzoek focust op het belastingsysteem op het snijpunt van recht, ethiek en psychologie. Wat zijn fiscale rechtvaardigheid en ethisch fiscaal gedrag vanuit een filosofisch en ethisch perspectief? Wat zijn de drijfveren van juridische besluitvorming en van fiscaal gedrag? Hoe vertaalt het juridisch kader ethische principes en fundamentele waarden? Wat is de invloed van de digitale transformatie van de samenleving op deze vragen? In 2015 werd mijn onderzoek bekroond met de Ius Commune Prijs van de Ius Commune Onderzoekschool (Amsterdam).

Toon Calders is professor at the computer science department of the University of Antwerp in Belgium. He is an active researcher in the area of data mining and machine learning.

He is editor of the data mining journal, and has been program chair of a number of data mining and machine learning conferences, including ECML/PKDD 2014 and Discovery Science 2016.

Toon Calders was one of the first researchers to study how to measure and avoid algorithmic bias in machine learning and is one of the editors of the book “Discrimination and Privacy in the Information Society – Data Mining and Profiling in Large Databases”, published by Springer in 2013.

He is currently leading a group of 6 researchers studying theoretical aspects of fairness in machine learning, as well as looking into practical use cases in collaboration with Flemish tax authorities, public welfare organizations, and an insurance company.

Liesa Keunen is a joint PhD. Researcher at both Ghent and Antwerp University. At Ghent University, she is part of the research group Law & Technology that is affiliated with the department of Interdisciplinary Study of Law, Private Law and Business Law. At Antwerp University, she is a researcher of Digitax the Centre of Excellence researching the challenges and opportunities that digitalisation brings for tax.

Dr. Bjorn Kleizen conducts research into citizen costs of government procedures, for example within the context of the PFOS crisis and the Dutch Childcare Benefits Affair. In doing so, he focuses in particular on the accumulated effects of multiple interactions with governments, which can sometimes last for years. His projects look at both psychological and political-scientific outcomes. For example, to what extent do citizens experience stress and exhaustion as a result of their procedures? And under what conditions do procedures affect trust in government? Dr Bjorn Kleizen previously completed projects on digitalization and reforms in governmental organizations. Within the DIGI4FED project on digitalization, he was responsible for the working package on trust in government in the context of big data analytics. Until March 2020, he worked on his doctorate on the impact of repeated reforms on governmental organizations. More specifically, this doctoral project investigated the psychosocial impact of reforms, including its impact on organizational cultures, employee well-being and employee attitudes and behaviors. His methodological expertise includes econometric analyses (various types of regression model), interpretative qualitative methods and legal analyses (legal comparative research).

Pr. Dr. Anthony Simonofski is Professor of Digital Transformation at the Business Administration department in the University of Namur, Belgium. He is also the co-founder of the Research Center on Management of Information and Digital Transformation (MINDIT) in the Namur Digital Institute. In 2019, he received his PhD in Business Economics from KU Leuven and his PhD in Computer Science from UNamur.

Sylvie De Raedt is docent belastingrecht en onderzoeksmanager van DigiTax, het door Methusalem gefinancierde Centre of Excellence dat onderzoek doet naar de uitdagingen en kansen van digitalisering voor de fiscaliteit. Haar onderzoek betreft voornamelijk juridische vraagstukken in het kader van de strijd tegen belastingfraude, de fiscale procedure, fiscale transparantie en belastinginvordering en onderwerpen op het raakvlak van belastingrecht en grondrechten en gegevensbeschermingsrecht.