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Africa: How Continent Could Reap Billions By Expanding Tax Base
DW, 15 June 2022
Every year, African countries miss out on vast sums of taxpayers' money due to a lack of logistical support for business transactions and monitoring systems. Read more »
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South Africa: Trusts Urged to Register for Income Tax
SAnews.gov.za, 30 May 2022
The South African Revenue Service (SARS) has advised representative taxpayers of trusts of their duty to register trusts for income tax purposes. Read more »
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Africa: Mobile Money Taxes Risk Driving Poor Out of Digital Economy
Thomson Reuters Foundation, 25 May 2022
Cash-strapped African nations are rolling out an e-levy on mobile money transactions to boost revenues, but the policy could hurt the poorest as the cost of living rises and… Read more »
Africa Could Earn Billions in Unpaid Taxes
Martina Schwikowski for Deutsche Welle reports that every year, African countries miss out on vast sums of taxpayers' money due to a lack of logistical support for business transactions and monitoring systems.
However, the real problem is that much of the working population is employed in the informal sector: on markets, in agriculture, the arts and craft industry, in the construction sector, or in transport.
Moreover, many small, independent businesses are not registered - self-employed people often pay neither taxes nor social security contributions.
If they were collected, more tax revenues could significantly improve health and education, expand infrastructure, and contribute to other urgently needed development projects in many African countries.
According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), 2 billion people work in the informal economy globally, and in Africa, 85.5% of the population does.
In sub-Saharan Africa, this percentage rises to 90% according to the World Bank, accounting for 40% of the (Gross National Product) GNP.
Thus, it is neither efficient nor fair, says the bank.
InFocus
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Tax simplification would level the playing field between tax authorities and multinationals by relying on easily verifiable standards, writes Tim Hirschel-Burns for African ... Read more »
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In developing countries, and the sub-Saharan region especially, the scale of unmet basic needs is enormous. It is estimated that Read more »
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Ghanaians in general, and the opposition in particular, have vehemently opposed the proposed 1.75% tax on electronic transactions, popularly known as e-levy, contained in the 2022 ... Read more »
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If Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) adopts the innovation of a new machine that enables automatic reporting of taxes by businesses to the by a local technology firm, Kenya has ... Read more »
