Training/HR Managers and Heads of training schools from tax administrations are primary stakeholders for ATAF’s capacity-building programs run by its Tax Academy (ATA).
The 14th ATAF Country Correspondent Conference aims to bring together representatives from the 42 ATAF member countries and the Secretariat. This year’s CCC will focus inter alia on the 15 Years of ATAF’s Legacy project and enhancing the role of ATAF’s Country Correspondents in ensuring institutional continuity.
The ATAF Annual Meeting will take place in Cape Town, South Africa, from 31 October 2023 – 02 November 2023 at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) in partnership with the South Africa Revenue Service (SARS).
ATAF is conducting the second leg of the Tax Research Methodology Training, with a focus on taxation, scheduled to take place on 23 – 27 October 2023 in Pretoria, South Africa.
The Advanced Transfer Pricing Module is the third and last module of the ATAF-OECD blended transfer pricing learning cycle. The Course is open to participants who successfully completed the first two pre-requisite modules. The Advanced Transfer Pricing course is scheduled to be conducted from 2 – 6 October 2023 in Pretoria, South Africa
The Advanced VAT Fraud course targets tax officials responsible for compliance and tax investigations who are invited to learn from experts also share experiences on how to detect various forms of VAT fraud. The main objective of the course is to expose participants to various forms of fraud around VAT and how best to deter them for enhanced revenue collection.
The 2nd NTO Technical Conference will be held online and in Cape Town under the theme "Digitalisation of Tax Administrations and Contemporary Issues”, and is jointly organised by the Network of Tax Organisations (NTO) and the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF).
The HTAMC was launched in July 2019 exclusively for Heads of Tax Administrations to share experiences and expertise on tax administration issues on topics of importance as leaders in the industry. The HTAMC was created as a forum for the Heads to discuss relevant global and continental developments and identify innovative ideas to enhance tax administration in Africa. The forum is through a facilitation of peer exchange, providing an opportunity for CG's and DG's to engage and share knowledge on similar issues experienced in their respective administrations.
OFFICIAL RELEASE OF THE ATAF’s AFRICAN TAX OUTLOOK (ATO) PUBLICATION – 2022 EDITION
The Advanced Course on Tax Audit forms part of the blended learning programme on tax audit, which is delivered in three progressive legs: basic, intermediate, and advanced. In the advanced stage, the course provides modules on auditing of specialized sectors and auditing of High Net-Worth Individuals.
Tax Research Methods Training (Introductory level) programme is progressive in nature and is structured to introduce participants to the theoretical framework underpinning research.
the Africa Tax Administration Forum and the Zambia Revenue Authority organize the Global Conference on the Future of Resources Taxation
The first ATAF Country Correspondent Conference is a critical event in the Secretariat’s planning process as it facilitates direct engagement between the Secretariat and its clients, the members.
The primary objective of this training is to provide officials with practical skills and knowledge on the application of data analytics in revenue and tax administration
This is the ATAF Women in Tax Network Dialogue which will take place virtually, via zoom on 15 February 2023.
The third leg will be focusing on interpreting the models and linking them with policy making. Participants will again be expected to continue working on country specific data.
The Conference, will bring together Heads and Senior Officials of African Tax Administrations and Ministries of Finance, representatives of international and continental organisations, and development partners, as well as those from the private sector and academic institutions working in the tax arena.
ATAF’s Tax Academy (ATA) is critical for ATAF to meet is mandate. The ATA offers specialised training programmes for its members through peer-learning and gaining contextual insight via African experts. Collective efforts are considered towards improving participation through constant engagements with Training Managers from revenue Authorities.
APPLICATION OF SCIENTIFIC APPROACHES IN TAX ADMINISTRATION AWARENESS AND INTRODUCTORY TRAINING (10th - 14th October, 2022)
The success and growth of ATAF is an attribution of the fundamental commitment and devotion of its member countries and the pivotal role of its country focal persons known as the Country Correspondents.
The third leg of the Revenue Forecasting and Analysis course
The key objective of the consultation is to have an interactive discussion with African countries on the key elements of the digital VAT toolkit relating to policy frameworks, legislation, administration, and operational infrastructure, to ensure we can tailor the Toolkit as closely as possible to the realities and challenges faced by African countries.
The key objective of the consultation is to have an interactive discussion with African countries on the key elements of the digital VAT toolkit relating to policy frameworks, legislation, administration, and operational infrastructure, to ensure we can tailor the Toolkit as closely as possible to the realities and challenges faced by African countries.
The HTAMC was launched in July 2019 exclusively for Heads of Tax Administrations to share experiences and expertise on tax administration issues on topics of importance as leaders in the industry. The HTAMC was created as a forum for the Heads to discuss relevant global and continental developments and identify innovative ideas to enhance tax administration in Africa. The forum is through a facilitation of peer exchange, providing an opportunity for CG's and DG's to engage and share knowledge on similar issues experienced in their respective administrations.
The African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) in conjunction with Juta and Company Ltd will launch volume 2 of the African Multidisciplinary Tax Journal (AMTJ).
The success and growth of ATAF is an attribution of the fundamental commitment and devotion of its member countries and the pivotal role of its country focal persons known as the Country Correspondents.
The African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) under the ATRN Programme in partnership with Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) cordially invites you to the 6th ATRN Congress scheduled to take place via Zoom Video Conferencing from 6th to 8th September 2021.
This webinar is the third and final of a series of three webinars that are being organised by the ICTD’s African Property Tax Initiative (APTI) in partnership with the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF). The webinar series is being held in the lead up to ATAF’s 6th African Tax Research Network (ATRN) Congress scheduled to take place in a Hybrid format from 6-8 September 2021 in Nairobi, Kenya (subject to health restrictions). and/or virtually via Zoom This year’s Congress is on the theme “Maximising property tax revenues through digitalisation,” and there is currently an open call for papers. See the details here and submit your paper by July 2nd, 2021. This event will be held on Zoom, with simultaneous translation between English, French, and Portuguese. Register in advance to receive the Zoom invitation link to join online. Date: Wednesday, June 30, 2021 Time: 9 am – 11 am Canada Eastern Time 1 pm – 3 pm GMT 2 pm – 4 pm GMT+1 (London, Brighton) 3 pm – 5 pm SAST Time 4 pm – 6 pm EAT (Nairobi, Kampala)
This webinar is the first of three that is being organised by the ICTD’s African Property Tax Initiative (APTI) in partnership with the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF).
The African Property Tax Initiative (APTI), in partnership with the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), is pleased to announce a three-part webinar series to disseminate and exchange knowledge, methods, and best practices for effective property tax systems in Africa.
The African Tax Administration Forum is pleased to announce the 5th Edition of the ATAF/ATRN Workshop on Methods of Research and Dissemination to take place from 8 to 12 March 2021, Virtually on Zoom.
Convene the first African tax legal counsel network workshop
1st Research Webinar on contemporary research priorities
Exchange of Information (EOI) Eswatini Country Program
Kenya Technical Assistance workshop - Building blocks of a tax administration.
This webinar with the tax officials from research/strategic planning/Revenue statistics/Tax policy units will be held to deliberate on the following issues, among others (i) the importance of data collection and revenue statistics analysis; (ii) gauge the usefulness of the ATAF publications; and (iii) discuss the ATAF ongoing research projects.
After two successful engagements with media and journalists in 2018 and 2019, ATAF’s plan for the third engagement is to train journalists on identified tax issues as a capacity intervention initiative.
The potential duration and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic brings unique challenges in managing the many different elements involved in ensuring continuity of vital tax administration functions as well as the safety of staff and taxpayers.
Transfer pricing risk assessment is the process of identifying and assessing the risk associated with cross border transactions that multinational enterprises engage into, with a view of determining whether the risk is worth pursuing through conduct of a resource-intensive audit
Virtual meeting of ATAF Research Department with Heads of Research and staff in tax administrations.
Realization of effective domestic resource mobilization by African countries is dependent on a number of factors some being simplification of tax laws and tax systems backed with knowledge and education which is expected to enhance taxpayers understanding of existing tax systems.
To fully appreciate the contribution of corporate taxpayers to revenue collection, tax officers dealing with large businesses are expected to be in tandem with the developments and discussions around salient tax issues.
The intermediate level shall introduce VAT fraud typologies and seek to equip tax officials with the requisite knowledge to conceptualize and target VAT fraud through audit and investigations while engaging and enlightening the taxpayer on its obligations and rights.
The 9th Country Correspondents Conference (CCC) for member countries will take place from 4 – 6 February 2020 in Abuja, Nigeria. The theme for the conference is "The Taxation of the Informal Sector in Africa." The purpose of this annual gathering of ATAF’s focal persons in member administrations is to afford participants the opportunity to reflect on and exchange views on the year that has elapsed and to discuss the activities that form part of the ATAF Workplan for 2020.
The African Tax Research Network (ATRN), hosted by the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), is a platform of choice for African tax research that aims to facilitate African capacity for credible research in tax policy, administration, law and leadership. The ATRN was created to meet the need for identifying potential synergies and linkage areas between academics and tax officials from the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) member countries.
This is the bi-annual event brings together ATAF Member States, International organizations, Policy Makers, Academics and Civil Society Organisations to an International Conference on Tax on the continent. Of special importance this year, is that ATAF will mark a decade since its inception. It is therefore a great opportunity to have the climax celebrations during the 4th ICTA Conference. The theme for the 4th ICTA Conference will be “Innovation - Digitalisation and Harnessing Technology to Improve Tax Systems”.
ATAF, in partnership with the Africa Development Bank (AfDB), is organising the 1st ATAF’s Experts Meeting on Digitalisation and ICT in Tax Administration to take place in South Africa from 6 to 8 November 2019.
Corporate Tax Payers in virtually all tax administrations constitute the single largest tax paying group. This is coupled by the fact that a significant portion of their contribution is attributable to Multinational Enterprises. It is estimated that although in number corporate tax payers are hardly 20% of the total universe, they contribute about 80% of total taxes on average. It is thus pertinent to engage them to understand drivers behind their compliance and non-compliance and devise ways and means of addressing them. Furthermore, their enhanced compliance would reduce the cost of tax administration significantly, leading to savings which can be channelled towards enforcement in other areas.
Realization of domestic resource mobilization (DRM) by African countries is dependent on a number of factors some being simplification of tax laws and tax systems backed with knowledge and education which is expected to enhance taxpayers understanding of existing tax systems.
This is a technical training aiming at exploring the potential of tax administrative microdata for analysis of the economy, tax policy measures and tax administration. Most empirical economic analysis is based on survey data. However, the current trend of low and falling survey response rates question the value and accuracy of survey results. There is increasing use of tax administrative microdata in economic research and for the assessment and analysis of tax policy measures.
You are invited to join us at the 8th Annual Africa Transfer Pricing Summit, proudly brought to you by the South African Institute of Tax Professionals, The Tax Faculty and The African Tax Administration Forum.
The validation workshop aims at convening the Heads of Research and Data Collectors of tax and customs administrations to validate the data collected. These data are collected during the data collection process which takes 4 to 6 months with the support of the ATAF research team.
The workshop will look at topics such as the role of digital platforms in the collection of VAT, the readiness of traditional VAT systems to facilitate a technological revolution and registration of foreign suppliers as VAT vendors.
The Intermediate tax audit course is the face to face interaction which follows the online course on tax audit. Candidates that have attained the set pass mark for the online leg are then invited for the classroom training session that builds on the knowledge acquired from the online course.
Transfer pricing risk assessment is the process of identifying risk arising from the taxpayer's transfer pricing arrangements and determining whether the risk is worth pursuit by conducting a resource-intensive audit.
This Competent Authority meeting will look at the treaty issues in relation to the ATAF Model DTA, the expanding of automatic exchange of information, Voluntary Disclosure Programmes (VDP) prior to the first exchange, to name a few.
The African Tax Administration Forum is pleased to announce that it will hold the 4th Edition of the ATAF/ATRN Workshop on Methods of Research and Dissemination. The workshop designed for junior and mid-career tax researchers in the African continent.
The African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), together with the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA), and supported by the African Development Bank (AfDB) is organising the ATAF High-Level Tax Policy Dialogue: EnsuringAfrica’s place in the Taxation of the Digitial Economy. Following a successful mandate renewal by the membership of ATAF in last year’s annual event, this year, ATAF will be prioritising an African response to the taxation of the digital economy.
Missing trader information and unrecorded sales statistics for purposes of tax evasion are a serious crime that prevents jurisdictions from collecting their fair share of taxes. This affects the realization of revenues from domestic resources necessary for the development of nations. Participants will have the opportunity to understand the fraudulent activities on VAT, hence be able to counter and raise fair share of revenues for countries. The course is open to Senior Officer from tax administrations handling domestic taxes work specifically VAT. Further, participants are expected to have at least four years working experience in VAT.
Integrity breach continues to emerge as a major factor in revenue haemorrhage world over in general and in Africa in particular. The need for African tax administrations to take a common approach in addressing the vice, is thus considered crucial. It is estimated that although integrity breaches directly contribute to 5% of Illicit Financial Flows, its impact is even greater as it is cross cutting as both as a criminal activity as well as is observed occurrence in activities of multinational enterprises leading to revenue loss. Its impact if aggregated, could possibly rise to 50% of the said illicit financial flows.
Heads of Tax Administrations will be presented with an opportunity to engage with their peers and share their country experiences on DRM and how to manage the challenges facing the African Countries.
ATAF Secretariat introduced a new course in 2018 namely the Advanced Tax Audit. The pilot programme was a success and in 2019 we will continue with ATAF’s Blended Learning approach. The objective of this course is to strengthen the participants’ ability to deal with complex issues in tax audit. The advanced training level is a progressive stage aimed at imparting understanding to Tax Auditors with intermediate experience in the area. Further, and based on specific requests from our members, the course will provide elective modules on auditing of specialized sectors. Participants will be assessed at the end of the course to determine expected learning outcomes.
The African Tax Administration Forum is pleased to announce that we have now open applications for the 4th Edition of the ATAF/ATRN Workshop on Methods of Research and Dissemination which will take place from 20 to 23 May 2019 in Nairobi, Kenya. The ATAF’s Capacity Building is a fully-funded workshop designed for junior and mid-career tax researchers in the African continent, and it is offered simultaneously to three (03) groups in three languages (English, French and Portuguese) respectively.
To offer an opportunity to get an understanding of the main issues, challenges, solutions on taxation in developing countries, especially Africa and to share knowledge and good practices amongst peers.
The Nexus Side meeting forms part of the ATAF-AfDB Taxpayer Education & Advocacy Project. The side meeting provides an opportunity to consider in detail proposed changes to the ATAF Model Double Taxation Agreement (DTA). This will in turn equip the Pan African Parliament (PAP) Monetary and Financial Affairs committee to make informed decisions when considering ATAF’s model DTA. The side meeting is based on the ongoing negotiations through the PAP to endorse ATAF’s DTA as the AU model for Africa. This and many more efforts, we believe, should go a long way in boosting efforts to improve Domestic resource mobilisation in Africa.
This workshop provides an opportunity to consider in detail proposed changes to the ATAF Model Tax Agreement and the changes in the 2017 edition of the OECD Model Tax Convention and the UN Model Double Taxation Convention, which focus on the allocation of taxing rights between source and residence jurisdictions and addressing tax avoidance. The workshop will discuss the MLI in order to comprehend its implications on their treaty network. This will in turn equip countries to make informed decisions when considering relating to joining the MLI, as countries around the world are currently reviewing and updating their treaty network to address tax avoidance.
As African countries increase their tax treaty networks and African tax administrations increase their focus on compliance activity on auditing cross border transactions there is an increasing incidence of divergent views and hence the increase in mutual agreement procedure (MAP) cases. The workshop on MAP will provide the opportunity for tax and Ministry of Finance officials working on MAP issues to discuss and share best practice on effective treaty dispute resolution which will increase tax certainty in African countries.
In 2019, ATAF will bring together the same breed of minds for the second media engagement and training. This year, the theme of the engagement is “Journeying with ATAF on the Next 10 Years: The Journey Towards Increased Domestic Resource Revolution in Africa”. The engagement aims at building on the first intervention, checks and balances while envisioning the future together.
The Madagascar Revenue Authority welcomes the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) and various experts and academics from European and African universities and revenue authorities to Antananarivo, for the second and final phase of a series of workshops aimed at revamping the curriculum of the Executive Masters in Taxation (EMT), an ATAF flagship programme.
Development of a DTA Model by ATAF can assist these States by providing a basis for either negotiating or renegotiating DTA’s with developed countries as well as within the membership to remove barriers to cross-border trade. The conference therefore, intends to provide deeper understanding on the model but also review it for countries implementation. ATAF member countries took part in the process of drafting the ATAF Model Double Taxation Agreement (DTA) in 2015.
The country Correspondent Conference is an important ATAF planning event during which delegates exchange perspectives on how to improve ATAF’s impact in their respective countries. The conference shall also review the activities and events planned for the year 2019, after discussing and drawing lessons from 2018.
The Conference, will bring together Heads and Senior Officials of African Tax Administrations and Ministries of Finance, representatives of international and continental organisations, and development partners, as well as those from the private sector and academic institutions working in the tax arena.
The African Tax Research Network (ATRN), hosted by the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), is a platform of choice for African tax research that aims to facilitate African capacity for credible research in tax policy, administration, law and leadership. The ATRN was created to meet the need for identifying potential synergies and linkage areas between academics and tax officials from the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) member countries.