The place of Africa in the shift towards Global Tax Governance: Can the taxation of the digitalised economy be an opportunity for more inclusiveness

The place of Africa in the shift towards Global Tax Governance: Can the taxation of the digitalised economy be an opportunity for more inclusiveness

The paper provides an overview of the current international tax governance landscape and inroads towards inclusiveness. It argues that although the governance process is transparent, efforts to establish a true international tax governance through the Inclusive Framework for BEPS Implementation (IF) are foiled by challenges hampering African countries to participate on an “equal footing.” It posits that setting international standards in the relatively new field of the taxation of the digitalized economy would be a natural test of a successful implementation of a framework in which international tax governance is conducted on an expanded multilateral basis, away from a “club structure” type of governance where initiatives are carried out and standards are set by a selected few, to an extended multilateral tax governance structure characterized by a broader distribution of leadership roles and responsibilities. Only such a structure would be seen by developing countries, and African countries in particular, as a driving force for increasing participation, inclusiveness and implementation of international tax reforms.

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