In 2019 the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) commissioned a National Taxpayer Survey and related study on tax compliance to the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD). This study is meant to serve as background to the new RRA Tax Compliance Strategy, which is scheduled to be launched in July 2020. Data was collected in January and February 2020, with the help of Vanguard Economics (a local survey company). It includes a sample of 2,000 small and medium taxpayers distributed in Rwanda, and it is nationally representative. The sampling was done starting from small and medium taxpayers in RRA’s taxpayer registry.

Right after the data was collected, Rwanda discovered the first cases of Covid-19 and started a national lockdown. The lockdown will certainly have important implications for tax revenue and the RRA is considering appropriate ways to respond to this new situation. In this fast-moving landscape, tax attitudes might have shifted – with implications for RRA’s compliance strategy. It is therefore highly policy relevant to collect follow-up data on tax attitudes in particular, in light of the recent crisis. The team aim to use these data for a more academic comparative study on the impacts of covid-19 on tax.

Researchers

Giulia Mascagni

Giulia Mascagni is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies and Research 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.

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.