In February, the Platform for Collaboration on Tax hosted its first global conference on “Taxation and the Sustainable Development Goals” at the United Nations headquarters. ICTD’s Capacity Building Manager Dr Jalia Kangave was interviewed live by UNDESA, discussing issues of taxation and inequality, gender, and accountability in Africa.
Professor Abiola Sanni, a member of ICTD’s Centre Advisory Group, gave a lecture titled “Policy, Legal and Administrative Imperatives in the Quest for Eradicating Multiplicity of Taxes in Lagos State” at the University of Lagos. The lecture was chaired by the Honourable Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, and the Guest of Honour was the Executive Governor of Lagos State Mr. Akinwunmi Ambode. See the story published in This Day here.
ICTD Researchers Alexander Ezenagu and Catherine Ngina Mutava were quoted in a piece by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists related to the Paradise Papers leaks. The story, titled “Tax Haven Mauritius’ Rise Comes at the Rest of Africa’s Expense,” by Will Fitzgibbon, describes how the files leaked from Appleby’s Mauritius office reveal complex tax avoidance schemes and evidence of treaty shopping.
The ICTD launched the Ethiopian Tax Research Network on September 20th at the Captial Hotel in Addis Ababa. About a hundred people attended to hear speeches by ICTD CEO Professor Mick Moore and Mezgebu Amha, the Director of Fiscal Policy at the Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation. These were followed by a series of presentations of research on tax issues in Ethiopia. See the full programme here.
The launch was covered in the Ethiopian Press.
The Ethiopian Herald: All eyes on domestic financial sources
The Reporter: ICTD opens up shop in Addis Ababa
Fana Broadcasting Corporate: Ethiopian Tax Research Network launched
Addis Fortune: Tax Research Network Commences in Addis
Ezega.com: Ethiopia launches tax research network
Ethiopian News Agency: Ethiopian Tax Research Network Launched
The ICTD launched the Nigerian Tax Research Network (NTRN) on September 12th at the Transcorp Hilton in Abuja. The theme of the event was “Revenue Beyond Oil Reliance.” The event received some coverage in the Nigerian media.
The Sahel Standard: Ex-FIRS Boss Emphasises Research in Tax Administration
The Daily Times: Exploit property tax to increase revenue, FIRS tells FG, states
Business AM: Tax research network launched in Nigeria
This Day: States Netted N820.7bn in IGR in 2016
The ICTD’s Government Revenue Dataset was used by Rajul Awasthi to demonstrate that India collects less revenue from personal income taxes than countries such as South Africa, South Korea, Russia, China and Brazil. Read the whole piece, titled “India’s ‘Billionaire Raj’ Era: Time to Reform Personal Income Tax.”
Development and Cooperation published a piece titled “Taxation serves sustainability”, which quotes three members of the ICTD team: CEO Mick Moore, Senior Fellow Odd-Helge Fjeldstad and Catherine Ngina Mutava.
While 2015 marked the deadline for the millennium development goals (MDGs), the UN had already started preparing a new development agenda. At the Rio+20, the UN conference on sustainable development held in 2012 in Brazil, the UN member states decided to build on MDGs and spearhead a process to launch a broader and more comprehensive set of sustainable development goals (SDGs).
Read the rest of the story here.
On November 28th, the researchers from the ICTD, the African Tax Administration Forum, and the Rwanda Revenue Authority presented the results of their work to the Authority’s management. The research examined the impact of different methods of communication with taxpayers on their voluntary compliance. The research helped the RRA raise an additional $9 million in taxes for Rwanda.
Read the piece here: Enhanced Communication Key to Increased Tax Compliance
The Ghanaian Times covered the ICTD’s workshop on Gender and Tax in Africa, which was held in Accra in November.
Read the full piece: Develop Tax Policies to Benefit Women – African Governments Urged
