Costa Rican children learn the importance of paying taxes by playing games

The Costa Rican Ministry of Finance presented the three educational video games as part of an initiative aimed at promoting learning and concepts of tax culture developed by the ministry’s Tax Education and Culture programme.

Memotest is an interactive game that aims to help children acquire and strengthen basic concepts of tax education and learn, through the game, the difference between public institutions and private enterprises.
Declarando mis impuestosmakes it possible to calculate income taxes in the game by selecting various trades and professions so that children can identify the portion of their annual income needed for paying taxes. At the end of the game, players can see that their tax contribution helps to maintain and fund hospitals, schools, museums and parks.

Somos equipo, on the other hand, aims to teach the social rationale for paying taxes. How all members of a community benefit if everyone contributes something.

The development of these video games was supported by the EUROsociALProgramme, the European Commission cooperation programmemanaged by the FIIAPP for technical and financial themes. Costa Rica handled adaption of the dialog and images to the Costa Rican reality.
These games have also been used in other countries, like El Salvador and Guatemala, and they can be accessed on the Ministry’s website by clicking the Tax Education icon.

Fernando Rodríguez, Deputy Minister of Revenue, highlighted the importance of educating people on tax issues starting in childhood. Jorge Cartín, National Advisor for Social Studies Cycles I and II of the Ministry of Public Education, indicated “that the tax education programme seeks to promote tax education from an early age, because a country that does not pay taxes does not have access to economic growth and public services. That’s why nearly 150 teachers participated in the Ministry of Finance training programme on a variety of topics related to taxes and public spending.”