Enhancing Taxpayer Registration with Inter-Institutional Data Sharing – Evidence from Uganda
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African Tax Administration Paper 35
Comprehensive population data is often lacking in many developing countries, especially in Africa. This is a critical challenge for tax administrations, who are already grappling with a substantial hidden informal economy. Recent studies highlight the importance of national identification (ID) data for enhancing tax collection efforts. This study looks into the impact of inter-institutional collaboration to share national ID data on tax administration data quality and functions. The Uganda Revenue Authority (URA) has integrated its registration system with that of the National Identification and Registration Authority (NIRA) and Uganda Registration Services Bureau (URSB), which allows it to access ID data for individuals and businesses. The Instant Tax Identification Number (Instant TIN) – an interface pulling this third-party data into the taxpayer registration form – promises a swifter registration process for taxpayers, and better data on taxpayers.
Celeste Scarpini is a Research Officer at the ICTD, and a PhD student at the Department of Economics, University of Sussex. Her main research interests relate to tax administration in sub-Saharan Africa, from technology adoption to data management and revenue collection strategies.
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.
Ronald Waiswa is a Research and Policy Analysis Supervisor at the Uganda Revenue Authority. He has collaborated with the ICTD on a number of research projects in Uganda on issues including taxing wealthy individuals and public sector agencies.
Moyo is the Programme Director for the Local Government Revenue Initiative (LoGRI). He was previously the Manager for Strategic Initiatives at (ICTD) and, before then, a Policy Development Officer at the City of Toronto. His tax research has focused on understanding how new technologies impact tax policy, administration, and public service delivery.
Jane Nabuyondo is a supervisor for Business Intelligence with 15 years of
experience in tax administration and vast knowledge of government (public)
operations. She is also the team lead in development and maintenance of the
URA Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence solution, including overseeing the
implementation of data governance initiatives in URA that will support the
organisation to become a data driven entity.
Citation: Scarpini, C.; Santoro, F.; Waiswa, R.; Arewa, M. and Nabuyondo, J. (2024) Enhancing Taxpayer Registration with Inter-Institutional Data Sharing – Evidence from Uganda, ICTD African Tax Administration Paper 35, Brighton: Institute of Development Studies, DOI: 10.19088/ICTD.2024.047
