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G20 Brazil: How does taxation fit into the agenda?

19th November 2024

The G20 Summit kicked off yesterday in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, bringing together leaders from the world’s largest economies to discuss issues of global importance, particularly those surrounding social inclusion, global governance reform, and energy transitions.

The Summit is a culmination of negotiations throughout the year where member countries are expected to come to an agreement on ways to deal with identified global challenges.

Aiming to influence this process, leaders and members of think tanks, academia, public and private sectors, as well as civil society gathered last week in their own Summit – known as the T20 (“Think 20”) – to discuss main public policy recommendations for the leaders of G20 countries.

These recommendations fall under six thematic workstreams, including fighting inequalities, poverty, and hunger, reforming the international financial architecture, and inclusive digital transformation.

ICTD and the T20

Researchers from the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) participated in crafting such recommendations in a number of policy briefs, situating the issues within the tax context.

Access them below:

  1. Taxing Informal Workers Fairly to Reduce Inequality and Support Inclusion

In this brief, ICTD Informality and Tax co-leads Max Gallien and Vanessa van den Boogaard, together with Nana Akua Anyidoho (University of Ghana) and Michael Rogan (Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising) wrote about how the G20 can support fairer taxation of the informal sector by extending social protection to informal workers and promoting progressive taxation, among others.

  1. A Fairer Global Tax Architecture

 ICTD Research Director Martin Hearson and Associate Postdoctoral Fellow Frederik Heitmüller, along with Mbakiso Magwape (International Monetary Fund and formerly a postdoctoral fellow at ICTD) and Suranjali Tandon (National Institute of Public Finance and Policy in New Delhi), explain how the G20 can strengthen perceived fairness and inclusivity within international tax standards. This, in the context of ongoing negotiations for a new UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation.

  1. Leveraging Digital Innovations for Sustainable Development: Evidence from Tax Systems in Africa

 ICTD Research Fellow Fabrizio Santoro co-authored with Tanele Magongo (Eswatini Revenue Service) and Razan Amine (PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge) this brief which reveals distinct challenges and opportunities in the adoption of digital tax services and electronic payments.

More policy recommendations

Similarly, other experts from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), the institutional base of ICTD, provided policy recommendations on issues surrounding sustainable development and food systems.

Explore other T20 policy briefs here.

 

Fabrizio Santoro

Fabrizio is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies, and the Research Lead for the second component of the ICTD's DIGITAX Research Programme. His main research interests relate to governance, public finance, and taxation, with a strong focus on impact evaluation methodologies and statistical analysis. He holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Sussex.

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.

Martin Hearson

Martin Hearson is a Research Fellow at IDS, Research Director of the ICTD and the International Tax programme lead. His research focuses on the politics of international business taxation, and in particular the relationship between developed and developing countries. Before joining ICTD, Martin was a fellow in international political economy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, teaching courses on political economy and global financial governance.

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.

Frederik Heitmüller

Frederik Heitmüller is an Associate Postdoctoral Fellow with ICTD’s International Tax Team. His research focuses on policies against corporate tax avoidance, the influence of international norms in the Global South and global tax governance. He is also an independent consultant on tax policy. Prior to joining ICTD, he obtained a PhD from Leiden University, Netherlands, where he investigated the political economy of the BEPS Project in the Global South as member of the GLOBTAXGOV project, and taught courses on international and comparative taxation. He has a master’s degree in political science from Sciences Po Bordeaux and University of Stuttgart.
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Keywords: G20, G20 Brasil, T20, T20 Brasil
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