Events

19 June 2025

Webinar: Taxing wealth in lower income countries

Webinar invitation card featuring the event title, date and time in addition to each speakers' picture, name, role and affiliate organisation.

Taxing wealth in lower income countries: lessons learnt and priorities for action

In the face of declining aid volumes and mounting debt and climate crises, low-income countries are under increasing pressure to raise more domestic revenue. With these countries already experiencing higher levels of wealth and income inequality than high-income nations, there is a compelling case for targeting tax mobilisation efforts at wealthy individuals, who often contribute proportionally less than the average citizen.

Such an approach would be not only equitable but also efficient, as taxes that primarily affect the wealthy are often those with the greatest revenue shortfalls. While increasing tax contributions from high-net-worth individuals is frequently complex, growing evidence points to promising strategies and general popular support.

By presenting research recently conducted and supported by ICTD, the Lahore University of Management Sciences, African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) and Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), this webinar will examine how to identify the most pressing legal, administrative, and political barriers, what revenue authorities can do to begin overcoming them, and how to increase popular support for these reforms.

Speakers

  • Umair Javed, LUMS
  • Giovanni Occhiali, ICTD
  • Vanessa van den Boogaard, ICTD
  • Ronald Waiswa, ATAF
  • Ishmael Zulu, TJNA

Moderated by Giulia Mascagni, ICTD

Related research

Event Details
Date
19 June 2025
Time
-
Register

Giovanni Occhiali

Dr Giovanni Occhiali is a Development Economist based at the Institute of Development Studies, where he works on a number of projects related to Tax Administration and Compliance, Tax and Governance and co-leads ICTD’s capacity building programme together with Dr Max Gallien. His research focuses on Sub-Saharan Africa, and outside of the field of taxation his main interests are energy economics and industrial policies. He holds a PhD from the University of Birmingham and prior to joining ICTD, he was a Researcher at the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei and an Overseas Development Institute Fellow at the National Revenue Authority of Sierra Leone.

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 and Somalia. Vanessa leads the ICTD’s new programme on civil society engagement in tax reform and co-leads the research programme on informal taxation.

Ronald Waiswa

Ronald Waiswa is a Research and Policy Analysis Supervisor at the Uganda Revenue Authority. He has collaborated with the ICTD on a number of research projects in Uganda on issues including taxing wealthy individuals and public sector agencies.

Giulia Mascagni

Giulia Mascagni is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies and Executive Director of the ICTD. Her main area of work is taxation, but she also has research interest in public finance, evaluation of public policy, and aid effectiveness. She is an economist by training, holding a PhD in Economics from the University of Sussex. Her main geographical interest lies in African countries, with a particular focus on Ethiopia and Rwanda.
Research theme:
Keywords: High Net Worth Individuals, taxing the wealthy
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