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September 2015

Low Government Revenue from the Mining Sector in Zambia and Tanzania: Fiscal Design, Technical Capacity or Political Will?

by Olav Lundstøl, Gaël Raballand & Fuvya Nyirongo

The contribution of mining to economic and social development in Sub-Saharan Africa is under increased scrutiny and criticism. Minerals are non-renewable resources, and production represents a transformation from a sub-soil to a financial asset. Unless the gains are efficiently captured, saved and invested by the ultimate owner of the resource, the country in question could experience…

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September 2012

People’s Views of Taxation in Africa: A Review of Research on Determinants of Tax Compliance

by Odd-Helge Fjeldstad, Collette Schulz-Herzenberg & Ingrid Hoem Sjursen

What are the key determinants of taxpayer compliance? And which features of citizen-state relations govern attitudes and behaviour regarding taxation? This paper examines the analytical foundation, methodological approaches and key findings of available empirical literature on taxpayer behaviour in Africa. Understanding how citizens perceive and experience taxation may provide an essential diagnostic of the political…

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October 2012

Local Government Revenue Mobilisation in Anglophone Africa

by Odd-Helge Fjeldstad & Kari Heggstad

This paper examines opportunities and constraints facing local revenue mobilisation in anglophone Africa, with an emphasis on urban settings. It discusses specific revenue instruments and their effects on economic efficiency, income distribution and accountability. In particular, it addresses political and administrative constraints facing various revenue instruments and factors affecting citizens’ compliance. The analysis is illustrated…

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September 2012

Donors, Aid and Taxation in Developing Countries: An Overview

by Wilson Prichard, Jean-Francois Brun & Oliver Morrissey

Recent years have witnessed rapidly growing donor interest in tax issues in the developing world. This reflects a concern with revenue collection to finance public spending, but also recognition of the centrality of taxation to growth, redistribution and broader state-building and governance goals. Against this backdrop, this paper identifies a series of key issues that…

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September 2012

Caught in a Trap: Zambia’s Mineral Tax Reforms

by David Manley

Any investment that involves unrecoverable costs relies on the good faith of the government not to raise taxes after costs have been incurred. Unfortunately, features inherent within the political economy of natural resource industries, and particularly within poor countries, makes a stable investment environment difficult to achieve. Indeed, some suggest that countries may fall into…

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August 2012

Taxing the Informal Economy: Challenges, Possibilities and Remaining Questions

by Anuradha Joshi, Wilson Prichard & Christopher Heady

Recent years have witnessed significantly increased attention to the challenge of taxing small businesses in the informal sector. However, much of this recent attention has remained focused on comparatively technical issues of revenue maximization and policy design. This paper argues that this debate should focus increasingly on the wider development implications of informal sector taxation,…

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July 2012

Financing Security through Elite Taxation: The Case of Colombia’s ‘Democratic Security Taxes’

by Gustavo A. Flores-Macías

Governments across the developing world in general, and Latin America in particular, tend to have difficulty in raising taxes from elites. In 2002, however, the Colombian government introduced the first of a series of wealth taxes aimed solely at rich individuals and companies with large liquid assets. Revenue from these taxes, which amounted to about…

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June 2012

Environmental Taxation and Development: A Scoping Study

by Stephen Spratt

Developing countries face increasing environmental pressures across a range of dimensions. At the same time, the capacity of these governments to effectively pursue policy goals is often constrained by a lack of resources, with tax revenues in many countries being half of what is common in developed economies. For some, these are distinct issues that…

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