ICTD Researcher Prof. Sol Picciotto (pictured) is set to join the subcommittee on dispute resolution of the UN Tax Committee. Prof Picciotto will be joining Tom Balco, who is also an ICTD researcher and a member of the subcommittee. This subcommitee is mandated to consider: a) Different possible ways to improve the mutual agreement procedure…
The African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) is pleased to invite submissions for the second annual congress of the African Tax Research Network (ATRN), which presents an opportunity for academics, researchers, tax administrators, graduate students, tax practitioners and decision-makers on fiscal and tax policy in Africa, to gather and discuss different aspects relating to national, regional…
ICTD CEO Prof Mick Moore and Mujtaba Piracha are the authors of a new journal article: Revenue Raising or Revenue-Sacrificing Government? Property Tax in Pakistan. The article has just been published in the Journal of Development Studies. This paper details the case of property tax collection in Pakistan – how governments are frequently revenue-sacrificers: they…
Goya Bauwens/Flickr, CC BY-NC Our Research Officer Rhiannon McCluskey had a live radio interview on 19 April 2016, which airs on 702 and CapeTalk, commonly known as “The Money Show with Bruce Whitfield. This show is hosted each weeknight on two radio stations in Johannesburg and Cape Town (South Africa) by Bruce Whitfield, and focuses on business/economic news on the continent. You can listen to the full interview here. The interview was based…
Roadside eatery in India. Garrett Ziegler/Flickr, CC BY-NC ICTD CEO Prof. Mick Moore was recently interviewed by BBC World Service, about india’s plan to raise more revenues by going after the smallest businesses – especially samosa vendors. According to Prof. Moore, “Though these small businesses can’t be ignored entirely, most governments rarely succeed when they…
On Tuesday March 15th, Professor Charlotte Watts, Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for International Development (DFID), delivered the Sussex Development Lecture at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS). The Lecture was titled “Research and knowledge at DFID: what role for evidence in the new aid strategy?” “This is a piece of DFID-funded research that…
Training opportunities on taxation and development are surprisingly rare, given the increasing attention that taxation is attracting internationally. Several new donors are entering this field, though many officials still have limited experience in the area. With greater demand for evidence on what works to improve taxation in Africa, there is an increasing need for qualified…
Evidenced-based policy requires good research. And good research requires good data. When the ICTD was created in 2010, there was no one reliable, comprehensive and detailed source of statistics on how governments globally raise their revenues. One of our first – and certainly most ambitious – project was to remedy that situation: • To…
Over the past decade, development actors have become much more interested in taxation. This interest has been spurred in large part by a provocative argument: that the process of raising taxes can can stimulate broad improvements in governance. It is argued that the need for governments to tax their citizens can be the leading edge…
Over the past two decades, research has periodically noted the importance of so-called “informal taxation” in low-income countries; that is, tax-like payments collected by both state and non-state actors, that are not authorised by formal legislation. These might include, among others, bribes and payments to state officials, informal user fees to state or non-state actors,…
In most of Africa, local government is in poor condition. Local governments provide few reliable services. The people that they fail to serve generally have a low opinion of them. One important reason is that local governments have little money. An important reason is the weakness of local revenue, which starves governments of funds and…
Economic growth and industrial development are high priorities for the Government of Ethiopia. The recent growth record is good, but manufacturing has progressed slowly. It is correspondingly important to know whether the tax burden is a significant constraint on enterprise and investment. Does the tax system bear down unfairly and inefficiently on some firms rather…
