The Centre for Economic Research and Capacity Building (CERCB), just concluded a week-long regional dialogue workshops, where findings on recent surveys on ‘taxpayers’ perceptions’, and ‘informal taxation’ in post-conflict Sierra Leone, were shared. The dialogue workshops were held in June/July 2014, in seven (7) district headquarters, where the surveys were conducted. This was under the…
What are property taxes? Broadly, they are taxes on the ownership, occupation or legal transfer of land and buildings. They take many forms, and go under many different names. The most familiar are regular annual charges payable by the owners or occupiers of urban residential or commercial premises. In Britain we call this the Council Tax….
Highlights of the Updated GRD – Contains new government revenue data until 2012 and in many cases, 2013. – Better coverage – more data from sources means (Better disaggregation, more countries where we can isolate resource revenues and new observations – e.g. South Sudan. – Includes the System of National Accounting and base year used by…
The report of the Senate Economics References Committee inquiry into corporate tax avoidance comes with the subtitle – “You cannot tax what you cannot see”, with a strong focus on increased transparency. The majority of the 17 recommendations in the interim report relate to improved transparency of the tax affairs of corporate taxpayers. This is a significant…
While developing countries have acknowledged the importance of domestic resource mobilization in development, in practice, not enough attention is being paid to the importance of tax bargains. Attempting to increase tax-to-GDP ratios without promoting negotiations between the taxing authorities and those being taxed is bound to undermine sustainable tax collection and promote poor governance. Successful…
When an international development conference in Addis Ababa almost collapsed last week, the confrontation emerged from an obscure and unlikely source. Who knew that the status of the UN Tax Committee could so stir the emotions? After taking negotiations to the brink, the G77 group of developing countries climbed down on demands for a global tax body and the rich countries got their…
A new study shows that Value-Added-Tax can be used to educate people outside the reach of direct income taxation on their role as tax-paying citizens. Improved tax compliance could be the outcome. As aid continues to dwindle day after day, raising domestic tax revenues is increasingly becoming an important priority for most African countries. Raising…
There is good news in the agenda for the Third Financing for Development Conference to be held in Addis Ababa on 13-16th July. For the first time, domestic resource mobilization is more prominent than international aid. The emphasis is on the ways in which the governments of developing countries can raise and leverage more financial resources for development….
The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has published a major new study on corporate tax, which specifically aims to add value to the ongoing debate on MNE tax avoidance in developing countries. The study used the ICTD Government Revenue Dataset to provide a baseline for the revenue contribution of MNEs in developing countries. UNCTAD estimates the fiscal contribution…
The International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) is supporting two new and important projects in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The first project is a study titled Bandits or states?Informal taxation, governance, and creation of political order by armed groups in Eastern Congo, and is run by Raul Sanchez de la Sierra. The second…
New publication by Nara Monkam and Mick Moore The developmental benefits of governments taxing citizens, even for modest sums, are often disregarded. African governments have long depended on revenue from natural resources or foreign aid to fund budgets. While the potential contribution that better domestic resource mobilisation could make to national finances has received…
An excellent new study shows how reforming Governors of Lagos State, Nigeria constructed a new social contract around taxation In fifteen years, Lagos has gone from being a symbol of disorder to a widely cited example of effective African governance. The Lagos State government has succeeded in multiplying its tax revenues and using these resources to restore…
