Events

17 September 2025

Webinar: Presumptive Taxes – What New Evidence Means for Policy and Practice

Webinar on presumptive taxes invitation card

Presumptive taxes are one of the most used tools through which tax authorities engage with informal economies. However, until recently, there has been very limited research on their actual performance and impact.

The first webinar for the Informality & Tax Community of Practice brings together three recent studies from across Africa to examine how presumptive taxes are working and what challenges exist – both in terms of equity and efficiency.

Speakers will present new findings and discuss what their implications are for the design and practice of presumptive taxes.

Speakers

  • Nelly Busingye, Partnerships and Institutional Learning Manager, Tax Justice Network Africa
  • Christopher Hoy, Economist, World Bank
  • Hitomi Komatsu, Economist, World Bank
  • Alex Kombat, Assistant Commissioner, Research & Policy Unit – Ghana Revenue Authority
  • Vanessa van den Boogaard, Research Fellow, ICTD

The webinar will be moderated by Max Gallien, Research Fellow at ICTD.

Related research on presumptive taxes

Simplified Taxation in Africa: What We Know – and Need to Know (Policy Brief)

Event Details
Past Event
Date
17 September 2025
Time
-

Nelly Busingye

Nelly Busingye works with Tax Justice Network Africa as the Partnership and Institutional Learning Manager. Before that, she worked with the Publish What You Pay (PWYP) International Secretariat as the Member Engagement Manager for Africa and Senior Regional Coordinator for the East and Southern Africa region. She has over a decade's experience in fiscal justice, environment and natural resource governance, policy analysis and advocacy, movement building, capacity building and programme management in Africa.

Christopher Hoy

Christopher Hoy is an Economist in the Poverty and Equity Global Practice at the World Bank.

Hitomi Komatsu

Hitomi Komatsu is a tax economist in the Fiscal Policy Unit of the World Bank. She has published journal articles and book chapters on tax policy and women’s time use and labor. Formerly, she was a Programme Manager at the United Nations Capital Development Fund, where she managed fiscal decentralization projects in Africa and Asia, a Programme Officer at the United Nations Development Programme in Malawi, and a consultant for the United Nations Statistical Office and the International Food Policy Research Institute. Hitomi holds a B.Sc. in Economics from University College London and a Ph.D. in Economics from American University.

Alex Kombat

Alex Kombat is the Assistant Commissioner and Head of the Research and Policy Unit at the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA).

Vanessa van den Boogaard

Vanessa van den Boogaard is a Research Fellow at the ICTD and a Senior Research Associate at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. She completed her PhD thesis on informal revenue generation and statebuilding in Sierra Leone, and has ongoing research on the topic in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, and Somalia. Vanessa co-leads the ICTD's research programme on informality and tax.

Max Gallien

Max Gallien is a Research Fellow at the ICTD. His research specialises in the politics of informal and illegal economies, the political economy of the Middle East and North Africa and development politics. He completed his PhD at the London School of Economics. Max co-leads the informality and taxation programme with Vanessa, as well as the ICTD’s capacity building programme.
Research theme:
Programme:
Keywords: Africa, informal economy, presumptive tax, simplified tax regimes
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