Vanessa van den Boogaard joins TaxCast Norway to talk informal sector taxation
ICTD Research Fellow Vanessa van den Boogaard was featured in Tax Justice Network Norway’s podcast, TaxCast, to discuss whether the informal sector should be considered a “tax goldmine”. Van den Boogaard, who co-leads the Centre’s research programme on tax and informality, talked about why measures to tax the informal secotr often fail and where it actuall pays to direct these efforts instead. Listen to the episode here.
Local outlet cites ICTD research on tax awareness, perceptions in contemporary Kenya
In an article about common tax reliefs available to Kenyans, K24 Digital cited 2024 ICTD research (Research in Brief 144) on tax awareness and fiscal workarounds in the country.
Devex quotes Giovanni Occhiali on improving African tax systems
ICTD Research Fellow Giovanni Occhiali was cited in a Devex article on what it takes to raise domestic revenue more effectively across African countries, in the context of declining aid.
It reads in part: “Giovanni Occhiali … has spent years studying how these gaps play out in practice. African systems, he tells [the reporter], are ‘working nowhere near as progressively as they should’ — and the revenue left on the table from unenforced laws against high earners dwarfs losses in almost any other area.”
Mick Moore pens op-ed for The Examiner on Sri Lanka’s IRD
ICTD Research Fellow Mick Moore published an op-ed for Sri Lanka’s The Examiner on recent improvements in how the Inland Revenue Department does its work.
He said in part: “Over the last two years, the department, step by step, is finding its mojo. The government has made tax reform a priority. The president’s office has created a bureau for revenue administration reform and modernisation, and the Treasury, a tax policy analysis unit. These efforts are beginning to bear fruit.”
Giulia Masacagni pens op-ed for Devex on taxing smarter in ‘post-aid era’
ICTD Executive Director Giulia Mascagni published an opinion piece on Devex on how ‘taxing smarter is the key to thriving in the post-aid era of development’.
She wrote: “2026 is the year to focus on solutions for the post-aid era, and to recognise that success hinges on lower-income countries’ ability to dramatically raise more public revenue, and on the partnerships they can count on as they do so.”
Frederik Heitmüller shares insights on UN Tax Convention negotiations with Tax Notes
ICTD Associate Postdoctoral Fellow Frederik Heitmüller was interviewed by Tax Notes on the progress of the negotiations for a UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation (see our work on the Framework Convention here).
Reflecting on the last round of discussions in Nairobi, Heitmüller told Tax Notes that “countries are still debating how the framework convention will work in practice, how binding the agreement will be, and how it will relate to the protocols, which overlap with some aspects of the convention.”
Read the full article here.
Mick Moore’s piece on Sri Lanka’s property tax system carried by local media
ICTD Research Fellow Mick Moore’s op-ed on Sri Lanka’s property tax system, which, he argues, is largely underperforming, was published in two local media outlets (see here and here).
“[P]roperty taxes are one of the most equitable ways of raising government revenue. People with more income and wealth live in larger houses and own more property,” he said.
“Let us tax them in proportion to the value of their properties, but exempt the poorest half of the population, whose houses anyway have such low values that their property tax assessments are not worth collecting,” Moore added.
Local media report on Mick Moore’s new paper on property tax in Sri Lanka
DailyFT featured ICTD Senior Research Fellow Mick Moore’s recent paper, published by Verité Research, on ways to reform Sri Lanka’s property tax system to make it more effective, efficient, and fair.
The article reads in part: “’The key to unlocking change lies in the valuation system,’ [Moore] writes, adding that digital valuation ‘provides an accessible, low-cost method for breaking the current systemic logjam.'”
It was also quoted in a Daily Online Mirror report.
Devex reports on ‘tax era’ of development, quotes ICTD’s Vanessa van den Boogaard
In a wrap report for its panel on domestic revenue in the sidelines of the WB-IMF Annual Meetings, Devex cited ICTD’s argument on the shift towards a “tax era of development“. Quoting ICTD Research Fellow Vanessa van den Boogaard, who was part of the panel, was quoted in part, saying: “We are firmly in the tax era of development, but we also know that there is a lot of work to be done.”
“Governments should not just be trying to tax harder or truing to do a blanket approach, but to do it in a smarter, targeted, tailored way, using data, using the tools that we already have at our disposal, to ensure that this critical moment is one that leads to progress and not to further inequality and popular unrest.”
ICTD-ATAF workshop on taxing HNWIs in Uganda gains coverage
ICTD’s workshop, held in Uganda in partnership with the African Tax Administration Forum and the Uganda Revenue Authority, garnered coverage from local media, including Africa Brief, Business Times Uganda, and The Citizen.
Vanessa van den Boogaards speaks at Devex panel on domestic resources
ICTD Research Fellow Vanessa van den Boogaard participated at the Devex panel on dometic resources during the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings in Washington, D.C. on the 16th of October.
“I see tax as absolutely critical to sustainable development in general,” she said. “Tax is already the primary source of financing for lower-income countries. But as aid budgets continue to shrink, it will also continue to be linchpin of development finance more generally.”
Read more about the “Tax Era of Development” here.
Awa Diouf pens piece for The Conversation on mobile money tax in Senegal
ICTD Research Fellow Awa Diouf published an article at The Conversation on the taxation of digital financial services in Senegal. Her piece was republished in the Dakar Times.