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September 2021

Co-Financing Community-Driven Development Through Informal Taxation: Experimental Evidence from South-Central Somalia

by Vanessa van den Boogaard & Fabrizio Santoro

Community contributions are often required as part of community-driven development (CDD) programmes, with payment encouraged through matching grants. However, little remains known about the impact of matching grants, or the implications of requiring community contributions in order for communities to receive development funding. This paper describes research where we partner with two non-governmental organisations (NGOs)…

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August 2021

Perception of Taxpayers and Tax Administrators towards Value Added With holding Tax in Zimbabwe

by Simbarashe Hamudi

Value added tax (VAT) is a key tax for generating revenue in Zimbabwe and all African states, and for financing the budget in African countries. However, the revenue authorities are not collecting large amounts of VAT for various reasons, including ineffective administration and tax evasion. The value added withholding tax (VAWHT) system brings the merits…

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July 2021

Can ICTs increase tax compliance? Evidence on taxpayer responses to technological innovation in Ethiopia

by Giulia Mascagni, Andualem T. Mengistu & Firew B. Woldeyes

The widespread introduction of ICTs and digitised data management systems is one of the most important developments amongst African tax administrations in recent years. However, very little evidence is available on their effectiveness to increase compliance and on how taxpayers respond to these changes. This paper starts filling this gap by reporting three sets of…

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July 2021

Fuel subsidy reform and the social contract in Nigeria: A micro-economic analysis

by Neil McCulloch, Tom Moerenhout & Joonseok Yang

Fuel subsidies in Nigeria are enormous – around USD 3.9 billion – almost double the health budget. Such subsidies come at great cost: the opportunity costs of such spending on other development objectives are large; the distribution of resources to the state governments is reduced; the vast majority of the subsidy goes to better off Nigerians; and…

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July 2021

Using New Data to Support Tax Treaty Negotiation

by Martin Hearson, Marco Carreras & Anna Custers

This paper introduces the new Tax Treaties Explorer dataset, developed with support from the World Bank and the G-24, and illustrates its use for research by tax treaty negotiators, policy makers, and researchers. The new dataset provides a rich source of data to reexamine existing tax treaty policy, inform negotiation positions, and assess treaty networks….

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July 2021

The Contested Shaping of International Tax Rules: The Growth of Services and the Revival of Fractional Apportionment

by Sol Picciotto

The digitalisation of the economy has spotlighted fundamental flaws in international tax rules, which have been exacerbated since the 1970s with the wider shift to the services economy and the growth of international services. These systemic flaws have been more evident from the perspective of countries that are mainly importers of services that have tried…

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July 2021

There and Back Again: The Making of Uganda’s Mobile Money Tax

by Doris Akol & Adrienne Lees

This paper evaluates the appropriateness of the tax policymaking process that led to the introduction, and the later adaptation, of a tax on mobile money transactions in Uganda in 2018. We examine the unusual source of the proposal, how this particular tax diverged from the usual tax policymaking process, and whether certain key stakeholders were…

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June 2021

The Role of Social Influence in Enforcing Tax Compliance: Experimental Evidence from Nigeria

by Adedeji Adeniran, Mma Amara Ekeruche & Chukwuka Onywkwena

Economic development is linked with increased state capacity including the ability to mobilise domestic tax resources. For many developing countries, high levels of informality are a major constraint in this regard. Yet, economic incentives like changing the tax rate or increasing the filling and audit rate can be ineffective in a highly informal economic structure….

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June 2021

More on the Positive Fiscal and Health Effects of Increasing Tobacco Taxes in Nigeria

by Corné van Walbeek, Adedeji Adeniran & Iraoya Augustine

Nigeria is faced with substantial economic and health burdens caused by tobacco smoking. The economic burden of smoking accounts for approximately 1.3 per cent of Nigeria’s GDP. In terms of its health impact, 4.9 per cent of all deaths in 2019 were attributed to smoking related diseases. The thousands of Nigerians that die annually from…

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June 2021

Taxing Agricultural Income in the Global South: Revisiting Uganda’s National Debate

by Graeme Stewart-Wilson & Ronald Waiswa

The issue of agricultural taxation has almost completely disappeared from scholarly and policy agendas in recent decades. And, yet, agriculture continues to be taxed very lightly in much of the Global South – even though it contributes substantially to GDP. In some cases, light taxation of agriculture may be an intentional policy goal. Evidence from…

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