Tax Administration

The AfCFTA aims to accelerate economic growth for member states. A critical aspect of this is collecting revenue spurred by income tax and value-added tax, supported by improved investment and consumerism. The AfCFTA seeks to eliminate tariffs between member states, which will deplete this source of revenue for member states, most of which are highly dependent on this form of revenue. To curtail the impact of this loss of income, member states need to have the capacity to effectively administer domestic tax policies to take advantage of this anticipated revenue from income tax and value-added tax. Member states' readiness in this area is of concern and must be addressed by providing adequate support to domestic institutions with expertise and knowledge.

Are countries capable of reducing economic inequality under conditions of contemporary globalisation without cooperating and coordinating with other countries? While states are far from powerless to effect distributional change within their own sovereign space, Taking a Common Concern Approach to Economic Inequality makes the case that cooperation and coordination is indeed necessary, especially in relation to corporate taxation.

This paper has adopted a precedential approach by illustrating the approaches used by some developing countries in selected but similar regions with West Africa in solving their tax collection problems. This paper has also recommended some pathways to be walked by West African countries in order to considerably succumb the gravid challenges faced in the collection of taxes and mobilization of revenues. By adopting the recommended techniques, the immense efforts made by the governments of these countries in addressing the practical challenges facing their tax revenue collection can be duly compensated.

This article reviews the policy advancements on digital taxation, the individual initiatives that some developed countries have enacted, and considers some recommendations for developing countries to address future changes. It also contains a brief analysis of the Ecuadorian VAT reform for digital services and other possible options that need to be considered by the country.

Developed and developing countries have committed to implement global standards as developed by the OECD with the political mandate of the G20 including standards that provide for exchange of information among tax administrations. Some of  the reasons for this exchange to take place, is the need to provide tax administrations with the relevant information on taxpayer’s activities/assets abroad, as well as to ensure that taxpayers including multinationals pay their fair share of taxation. Exchange of information is the key instrument for tax administrations in order to prevent tax evasion, tax fraud, and aggressive tax planning.

The primary objective of this post is to highlight the importance and gravity of the existing tax evasion in Latin America and the Caribbean today. A study conducted by Santiago Diaz de Sarralde Miguez reports that Latin America and the Caribbean are characterized by a relatively low tax burden, which averages 22.8% of GDP. That is 11.5% less than the OECD (2015). While it is true that there are large differences between countries, as the tax burden varies from 12.4% in Guatemala to 38.6% in Cuba.

Technological progress and trade liberalization dramatically increased electronic trade and opened new chapter for the businesses to remotely supply services and intangibles to the customers anywhere around the world. Such rise of e-trade and emergence of global economy created new challenges for the policy makers in applying goods and services tax (GST) on cross-border business to consumer (“B2C”) transactions.

While the desire to tax digital platforms is legitimate, the strategy taken by the country may be too costly. It is likely that this law may face future amendments to include factors such as thresholds so that the tax administration aspect is cost effective. For example, the law provides that this amount shall be due at the time the amount is paid to the service provider for the service, it is unclear how this is supposed to be remitted. If you compare this to rental income tax which is due by the 20th of each month, one is able to consolidate the income and make the necessary payments without incurring any unnecessary transaction charges from the intermediary financial institutions.