Showing 37-48 of 53 Blogs
Two market traders walking by cars with baskets of goods over their heads
March 2023|
Blog

Ghana’s e-levy is unfair to the poor and misses its revenue target: A lesson in mobile money tax design

by Vanessa van den Boogaard, Max Gallien, Nana Akua Anyidoho & Michael Rogan

The levy’s effects – on Ghana’s public finances, its poor, mobile money usage –have been at the centre of intense and polarising public conversations, much of it without empirical basis….

Photo of women of Takalafiya-Lapai village, Niger State, Nigeria
January 2023|
Blog

Mobile money tax: Is there a gender gap?

by Hannelore Niesten & Mary Abounabhan

Gender and tax: As Africa increasingly introduces specific taxes on digital financial services (DFS) such as mobile money, do DFS taxes exacerbate or reduce gender inequality?…

Event
DIGITAX ECard for Ghana Webinar. Image shows three speakers in bubbles with text stating their names and titles.
10 November 2022
Webinar – The devil in the detail: Examining Ghana’s new e-levy from a policy-design perspective

DIGITAX is delighted to announce the second webinar in DIGITAX’s e-levy series ‘The devil in the…

Ugandan landscape shot with a small hut in left foreground, lakes centre and right background and a yellow sign that read mobile money airtime selling in front of the hut
October 2022|
Blog

How should Africa’s digital payments be taxed?

by Philip Mader

Africa’s governments need tax revenue to fund everything from education and social welfare to paying international debts. No wonder governments are eyeing digital financial services (DFS) – a rapidly growing, highly profitable industry – for additional revenue….

woman at a mobile money street stall in Tanzania
October 2022|
Blog

Tanzania to waive electronic money transfer levy, except on mobile money?

by Hannelore Niesten

From 1st October 2022 Tanzania eliminated the levies on certain electronic money transfers, but not on mobile money….

Red vodafone mobile money kiosk in Ghana
October 2022|
Blog

New data on the e-levy in Ghana: Unpopular tax on mobile money transfers is hitting the poor hardest

by Vanessa van den Boogaard, Max Gallien, Michael Rogan & Nana Akua Anyidoho

In Ghana, the “e-levy” has been linked to the current administration’s “Ghana Beyond Aid” strategy for reducing aid dependence….

Working Paper

Mobile Money Taxation and Informal Workers: Evidence from Ghana’s E-Levy

flags of East African Community countries
September 2022|
Blog

Mobile-money taxation in East Africa: Harmonisation or laissez-faire?

by Hannelore Niesten

Regional tax harmonisation is controversial, with compelling arguments for and against. Is it desirable? Or beneficial? And if so, to whom?…

elderly african woman and young black man using phone and credit card
August 2022|
Blog

Ghana’s new e-levy: The sour, sweet and switches so far

by Fabrizio Santoro, Mary Abounabhan & Awa Diouf

Introduced in May 2022, Ghana’s e-levy is a 1.5 per cent tax on the transfer amount of electronic transactions. The objective is to improve tax revenues by tapping into fast-growing digital financial services (DFS). However, many exemptions are applied to the tax design….

NextBillion EGM
August 2022|
Blog

To tax or not to tax mobile money? The impact on digital financial services in Africa and beyond

by Adrienne Lees & Philip Mader

“Designing better tax policies for DFS requires understanding the factors that enable using DFS, and its potential impacts” writes Adrienne Lees & Philip Mader in their first blog for the ICTD….

Working Paper

Enablers, Barriers and Impacts of Digital Financial Services: Insights from an Evidence Gap Map and Implications for Taxation

News
Mobile Money Selling Booth
January 2022
Call for research proposals on digital financial services, digital ID, and taxation

Background The rapid expansion of mobile money and broader digital financial services (DFS) as well as…

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