2021

The current COVID-19 pandemic and associated economic crisis have seen Africa fall into recession for the first time in over 25 years.

The ATAF is pleased to present the first edition of the Guidebook on the Efficient Acquisition, Implementation and Maintenance of Integrated Revenue Administration ICT Systems in Africa (hereafter ATAF’s ICT guidebook).

This policy paper is the first publication on tax treaties that ATAF has produced for its membership.

Informal sector (IS2) economic activities are prevalent in both developing and developed economies. In both economies, the informal sector is not a temporary, marginal, and peripheral phenomenon, but a permanent feature (Medina and Schneider, 2018 and Becker, 2004).

Environmental taxation is fast becoming a priority on every country’s fiscal agenda. However, it is likely to be introduced at varying speeds, depending on each country’s level of economic development.

This policy brief uses the data that was collected from countries prior to the webinar, summarises the countries’ findings, and proposes recommendations.

Environmental taxation plays a critical role in slowing climate change. It also plays a vital role in taxing behaviour that is harmful to the planet’s health.

The ATAF Good Practice Checklist on the Acquisition, Implementation, and Maintenance of ICT tax systems in Africa is an extract of The ATAF ICT Guidebook.

Natural disasters, pandemics, wars, adverse weather patterns, and similar catastrophes have a negative impact on society. Governments the world over react differently in response to these catastrophes.

Illicit financial flows (IFFs) are a challenge that continues to plague the development of many countries on the African continent.

This booklet of good practices, success stories and lessons learnt in taxation of the informal sector is part of a research project undertaken by ATAF with the financial support of the African Development Bank (AfDB) aimed at producing a guidebook on the efficient taxation of the informal sector in Africa.

Tax administration is essential for every country. Only with collected taxes, governments able to provide public services to citizens (taxpayers) and to implement welfare programs.

Environmental taxation plays a critical role in slowing climate change. It also plays a vital role in taxing behaviour that is harmful to the planet’s health.

As the Covid-19 crisis hits, African countries have put in place several tax-relief measures to mitigate against and ameliorate the economic impact of the pandemic on the economy.

Cities are responsible for about 80% of global GDP and rapid urbanisation represents one of the biggest growth opportunity in Low and Middle Income Countries (LMICs).

Ensuring that all taxpayers pay their fair share of taxes is very paramount for the efficiency and fairness of each tax system. However, with the adverse economic impact of the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) on African countries, revenue administrations find themselves operating in a challenging business environment.

Africa’s revenue administrations (RAs) recently adopted information and communication technologies (ICTs) to build process efficiencies and to enhance service delivery.

This summary brief summarises the Guidebook on the Efficient Taxation of the Informal Sector in Africa (hereinafter, the Guidebook) which was developed by the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) to articulate the rationale for taxing the informal sector in Africa and provides pragmatic best practices and home-grown options.

Since its inception in 2009, the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) has focused on enhancing the capacity of its members in tax administration through shared knowledge and experiences.