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Publications

Showing 84-95 of 415 publications
November 2020

Strengthening Tax-Accountability Links: Fiscal Transparency and Taxpayer Engagement in Ghana and Sierra Leone

by Vanessa van den Boogaard, Wilson Prichard, Rachel Beach & Fariya Mohiuddin

There is increasingly strong evidence that taxation can contribute to expanded government responsiveness and accountability. However, such positive connections are not guaranteed. Rather, they are shaped by the political and economic context and specific policies adopted by governments and civil society actors. Without an environment that enables tax bargaining, there is a risk that taxation…

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October 2020

How Best to Nudge Taxpayers? A Tailored Letter Experiment in Eswatini

by Fabrizio Santoro, Edward Groening, Winnie Mdluli & Mbongeni Shongwe

Tax collection in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) performs poorly, with a tax/GDP ratio of about 15% –this has severe repercussions for service delivery, growth and state-building. The ratio in high-income countries is 35%. Resource-constrained tax authorities in SSA are transitioning towards a new tax era, and implementing innovative compliance strategies such as ‘tax nudges’ – communication…

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October 2020

Gender and Tax Compliance: Firm Level Evidence from Ethiopia

by Seid Yimam & Fissha Asmare

Developing countries often lack tax information and enforcement capacity necessary to effectively implement instruments of a modern tax system, such as VAT, income taxes and others. An alternative strategy to increase tax compliance, and thus revenue, in these countries may depend on the capacity of policymakers to harness individual’s civicmindedness, social norms, reciprocity and cultural…

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October 2020

How to Best Nudge Taxpayers? The Impact of a Tailored Letter Experiment in Eswatini

by Fabrizio Santoro, Edward Groening, Winnie Mdluli & Mbongeni Shongwe

Very little is known about why taxpayers in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remit their taxes. In collaboration with the Eswatini Revenue Authority (SRA), this study implements a nationwide randomised controlled trial nudging more than 20,000 income tax payers with behaviourally-informed mailings. This study attempts to shed new light on the drivers of SSA taxpayers’ compliance, and…

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September 2020

What is Wrong with African Tax Administration?

by Mick Moore

National tax administrations in sub-Saharan Africa have undergone considerable reform in recent decades. In a number of respects, they are, on average, more reformed and more efficient than tax administrations in other low income regions of the world. They have responded effectively to a number of major challenges. However, we now have evidence from benchmarking…

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September 2020

Governance and Building Back Better

by Shandana Khan Mohmand

The pandemic is in many ways a crisis of governance. Its magnitude and mitigation are determined by the nature of policy responses and crisis management by leaders and governments, and existing socioeconomic inequality has led to a disproportionate impact on some groups. The pandemic has created a set of unique challenges that underscore the need…

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August 2020

Simulating the Impact of Covid-19 on Formal Firms in Eswatini

by Adrienne Lees, Giulia Mascagni & Fabrizio Santoro

Prior to Covid-19, Eswatini faced numerous developmental challenges with stagnating poverty and economic growth. Lockdown measures were introduced from 17 March, including schools closures, limitations on public and private gatherings, the suspension of non-essential travel within cities, and border closures. Economic activity has been damaged further by South Africa’s strict containment measures and the closure…

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August 2020

Simulating the Impact of Covid-19 on Formal Firms in Rwanda

by Adrienne Lees, Giulia Mascagni & Fabrizio Santoro

Prior to Covid-19, Rwanda was booming, with economic growth exceeding ten percent in 2019. Strong growth has been accompanied by significant improvements across various human development indicators, such as poverty reduction and rising life expectancy. The pandemic has placed much of this progress in jeopardy. Exports and tourism have been hurt by border closures and…

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August 2020

To File or Not To File? Another Dimension of Non-Compliance: The Eswatini Taxpayer Survey

by Fabrizio Santoro, Edward Groening, Winnie Mdluli & Mbongeni Shongwe

Non-filing refers to taxpayers who fail to submit a tax declaration, thus becoming ghosts in the eyes of tax authorities. It is a widespread phenomenon in sub-Saharan Africa, and has a number of detrimental fiscal effects. Non-filing has been largely unexplored in the literature, which focusses more on active filers. The overall aim of this…

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August 2020

A Simplified Method for Taxing Multinationals for Developing Countries: Building on the ‘Amount B’ Proposal to Repair the Transactional Net Margin Method

by Michael C. Durst

This paper considers whether the ‘Amount B’ proposal currently being negotiated in the Inclusive Framework, for the attribution of fixed remuneration for the ‘routine’ distribution and marketing activities of MNE affiliates, may offer a useful template for the re-working of the widely used ‘transactional net margin’ transfer pricing method (TNMM). The TNMM has for years…

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August 2020

Building a Social Contract? Understanding Tax Morale in Nigeria

by Neil McCulloch, Tom Moerenhout & Joonseok Yang

An important part of every country’s development process is the building of a social contract in which citizens pay tax and, in turn, receive public goods and services. Evidence suggests that this is associated with the establishment of a norm of tax payment and a belief that non-payment is wrong. We exploit a new, nationally…

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July 2020

The Appropriateness of International Tax Norms to Developing Country Contexts

by Martin Hearson, Joy W. Ndubai & Tovony Randriamanalina

This FACTI Background Paper considers six sets of international tax norms: tax treaties (often known as double taxation agreements), transfer pricing rules, mutual assistance agreements between states, state-state and investor-state tax dispute resolution mechanisms, coercive mechanisms that oblige states to adopt international tax norms or face sanctions from powerful states, and finally the embryonic framework…

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