Fiscal Digitalization and Tax Audit Performance: A Systematic Review of Technologies, Outcomes and Institutional Conditions

Résumé

Fiscal digitalization is changing tax auditing through electronic filing and invoicing, third-party data integration, and analytical tools that support risk-based case selection. Existing research remains fragmented across technology adoption studies, compliance evaluations, and fraud-detection models. This fragmentation makes it difficult to determine which digital tools improve which dimensions of audit performance and under what institutional conditions. This article addresses that gap through a systematic literature review structured in accordance with PRISMA 2020. The review covers 2010-2025 and uses Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and supplementary Google Scholar searches. Of the 250 records identified, 35 studies met the eligibility criteria and were subjected to standardized data extraction, quality appraisal, and comparative thematic synthesis. The most recurrent findings concern shorter processing times, stronger risk-based targeting, improved transaction traceability, and lower compliance or administrative costs. Positive effects on audit yield, revenue, and voluntary compliance are also reported, but the evidence is more context dependent and does not justify unconditional generalization. Performance gains rely on data quality, interoperability, auditors' digital skills, the legal validity of electronic evidence, cybersecurity safeguards, and accountable algorithmic governance. The article makes three contributions. Theoretically, it develops an integrated framework connecting digital technologies, operational mechanisms, institutional conditions, and multidimensional audit performance. Methodologically, it introduces a transparent coding and appraisal structure that separates established evidence, convergent tendencies, and prospective claims. Managerially, it identifies an implementation sequence in which data governance, human capability, legal authorization, and security controls precede large-scale predictive deployment. The review therefore reframes fiscal digitalization not as a self-executing technological solution, but as a socio-technical transformation whose value depends on organizational and regulatory readiness.

JEL Classification: H20, H26, M42, O33.

Paper type: Theoretical research, systematic literature review.