ICTD Informality and Taxation blog series The ICTD’s Informality and Tax programme seeks to conduct, connect, and support novel research around the relationship between tax and informality. To introduce some of the central areas of research in this area and highlight relevant questions for policymakers and academics alike, we will accompany our work with a…
As the world grapples with the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, vulnerable workers in the informal sector in the global south have been hit hard. Their health is disproportionately at risk. As, for example, vendors working in close quarters and heavily reliant on face-to-face interactions or as frontline care-workers in households, the nature of their…
There is no scarcity of criticism of the methods that OECD governments have used – and not used – to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus. By contrast, the steps they have taken to deal with the economic consequences of the pandemic are more widely appreciated. The OECD now reports regularly on the wide…
Hour for hour, day for day, the world is changing due to the rapid spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19). Every area of social action is affected by the increasing restrictions being placed on citizens around the world through isolation and quarantines, posing profound problems for economies and policy-makers. Global negotiations over a new resolution to…
With over 16,000 deaths globally and the number of cases growing each day, the calamitous impacts of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) are already being felt. As the virus continues to spread, the human impact in the Global South has the potential to be catastrophic as it strains weak and underfunded health systems. The economic impacts…
In 2018, the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) published findings from a research study in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. While the researchers did not find any evidence of gender bias in the way market traders were taxed, they did find a major gender issue they did not expect – toilet fees. They found…
Cigarette sales in most African countries are going up all the time. But smoking rates are much lower than in high-income countries. Because of these comparatively lower smoking prevalence rates – combined with the urgent need to address infectious diseases – tobacco control policies have largely not been prioritised. Nigeria is a case in point. Preventing smoking rates…
A critical moment Next week sees a critical moment in the reform of global corporate tax rules: the plenary meeting of the Inclusive Framework on Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS). The Inclusive Framework negotiations focus on the challenges created by the digital transformation of the economy, and African countries are participating in the negotiations….
The negotiations on corporate taxation at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s (OECD) BEPS Inclusive Framework initiative have rightly generated much discussion, both on the process and on the proposed changes in tax policies. Allison Christians has pointed to several concerns that developing countries have with both: the proposal is one that has maximum acceptability by the great…
The global fight over how—and where—to tax the new digital economy is raging on. Just last week, the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) published the conclusions from its investigation into France’s new tax on large tech companies, such as Apple, Facebook, and Google. The USTR found that the French tax discriminates against US companies, and…
Developing countries are making a significant contribution to the current efforts to reform international tax in the project on base erosion and profit shifting (BEPS), despite the obstacles they face in making their participation effective. It is welcome that since 2016 participation in the process was open to all countries, through the Inclusive Framework on…
In response to Allison Christians’ blog providing suggestions on how the OECD’s consultation on the unified approach could regain equal footing for developing countries, Ben Dickinson points out that the 135 members of the Inclusive Framework (IF) are working together in a participatory way. In emphasizing the need for countries to negotiate as sovereignties rather…
