In 2016, Nigeria’s Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council recognised that Nigeria should not be left behind in the emerging digitisation of tax processes in Africa. Working closely with the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the council introduced six key electronic solutions. The solutions included e-registration of new taxpayers, e-payment of federal taxes and stamp duties, e-filing…
As the current membership of the UN Tax Committee meets for the last time this week, Abdul Muheet Chowdhary examines how it can be reformed to better serve the interests of developing countries. The UN Tax Committee Nestled within the UN’s Economic and Social Council is a little-known but vitally important subsidiary body with the…
What is the connection between taxation and more open societies that the British aid programme aims to support? In long-term historical perspective, it is very close. The societies that enjoy the most open, democratic and accountable government are also those that tax the most – and spend the most on making life better for their…
Informal economies in North Africa have frequently captured public attention in recent years. They not only make up over half of the region’s labour force and a substantive part of its GDP, but often put workers into unsafe environments or in conflict with authorities. While Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation is surely the most famous example, deaths and…
It is widely recognised that “business as usual” will not close the estimated financing gap of USD 2.5 trillion that is needed annually to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030. United by this realisation, the members of the multi-stakeholder-partnership Addis Tax Initiative (ATI) recently presented the ATI Declaration 2025 to renew political buy-in…
Though education is a core duty of the state, public education in Sierra Leone is financed not only by the formal government budget and off-budget aid, but also by informal contributions, taxes, and fees paid by households. Since independence in 1961, the state has consistently supported the ideal of universal free primary education, though in…
During the summer of 2020, the International Budget Partnership (IBP) and the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) worked collaboratively to conduct a broad scan of civil society organisations (CSOs) working in the taxation space with a specific interest in domestic taxation. Our objective was to create a comprehensive picture of the emerging field,…
When work on the taxation of the digital economy kicked off as part of the OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project in late 2018, there seemed to be a broad agreement that international tax rules needed an overhaul to successfully tax billion dollar tech giants like Amazon, Google and Facebook. Key to this…
A vast network of tax treaties to facilitate investment When comparing countries’ foreign direct investment, you would expect the world’s largest economies to top the list. However, in this world, where businesses structure their international investments following the logic of tax minimization, the Netherlands sits firmly at the top, along with the United States and…
Despite being recognised as a critical aspect of tax compliance, taxpayer knowledge is a very under-explored topic. Using evidence from Rwanda and Eswatini, Giulia Mascagni explores why taxpayer education matters, whether it is effective, and how research can inform governments’ taxpayer education programmes. Across Africa, many taxpayers have a shockingly poor understanding of the tax…
Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, changes that might ordinarily take a few years are now occurring in the span of just a few months. The uptake of e-commerce and the adoption of video-conferencing, for example, have increased rapidly. This distinctive feature of crises—that they can accelerate otherwise slow-moving trends—can be harnessed by those seeking to create…
One of the strongest arguments for investing in the tax capacity of developing countries is the supposed participation dividend of taxation. Beyond providing more tax revenue with which the government can supply essential public services, tax collection is thought to stimulate citizen engagement in the government, and ultimately, political accountability. The accumulated evidence of a…
