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African Multidisciplinary Tax Journal

Publisher:
Juta Journals
Publication date:
2021-07-19
ISBN:
2709-8575

Description:

The African Multidisciplinary Tax Journal (AMTJ ) is an annual, applied scientific journal that is double-blind peer-reviewed. The journal publishes original high-quality research papers that use analytical, empirical and contemporary methods across the whole spectrum of taxation research. It is an initiative of the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), an international organisation that acts as a platform for promoting co-operation, knowledge sharing and capacity building among African revenue administrations (RAs) thereby reducing duplication of work. From its inception in 2009, when it was formally launched in Kampala, Uganda, ATAF has grown in stature and in influence. Today, ATAF is an important voice in taxation globally with its membership at 40 African tax administrations.

Issue Number

Latest documents

  • Assessing taxpayers’ awareness on their right to appeal property tax assessment in the city of Mzuzu – Malawi

    Valuation inaccuracy when assessing properties for taxation purposes, which results in taxpayers deciding to evade property taxes due to higher taxes influenced by incorrect assessments, affects the economy of the country negatively. This research evaluated how a lack of taxpayer awareness of their right to appeal on estimated property taxes affect property tax compliance in Mzuzu City. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected by administering questionnaires while the study areas were selected based on their planning nature and different state in terms of the income of the dwellers. Taxpayers were selected randomly and the sample from study areas was found by matching the total number of taxable properties in the area to the appropriate sample size. The study has confirmed that the majority of taxpayers do not take any action if an assessment is incorrect due to a lack of knowledge of tax appeals which often leads to tax evasion. Consequently, the government needs to extensively educate taxpayers on tax appeals through, for example, radio and television media.

  • Using a digitalisation approach to optimising potential property tax revenues in the Democratic Republic of Congo

    Optimising property tax is beneficial for real estate investors but can also encourage tax avoidance and fraud by economic operators if the state does not put safeguards in place to secure its rights. On the one hand, the state must first control the number of buildings per category and identify the property owners to be taxed. Thanks to digitalisation, tax administrations will change the current approach in favour of modern management tools such as those used in other countries. On the other hand, the state must encourage investors to build more apartment buildings in third- and fourth-tier localities to benefit from the tax relief associated with these properties. These proposed solutions, which are supported by figures from the city of Kinshasa, are used as an example and presented in this article. It highlights that this approach allows the two stakeholders (tax administration and taxpayers) to mutually benefit while effectively reducing the behaviour at fault.

  • Tax revenue potential and effort in Ethiopia: A comparative analysis of stochastic frontier analysis vs utility maximisation function as a new measure of tax effort

    This article tests the new measure of tax efforts following Dalamagas et al (2019) who argued that in the context of the Arrow-Debreu economy, with fixed labour supply and no savings, disposable income is equal to private consumption, a utility function with two arguments, income, and government spending, is maximised concerning direct and indirect tax rates. The optimal level of tax revenue is derived from a utility maximisation process and is shown to be equal to the difference between income and consumption. As a robustness check, the results of the utility maximisation function were compared to the findings of the stochastic frontier model. Each model records very near results for tax effort, tax potential, and tax gaps. The empirical findings revealed that Ethiopia has a large tax gap and poor tax effort, which is primarily due to policy choices and enforcement procedures.

  • Contribution to the assessment and prediction of companies? Tax risks in the administration of tax

    Tax risk management requires an adequate assessment of the risk based on previously identified determinants. The main objective of this article is to design a tax risk prediction tool. To achieve this objective, data were collected from about sixty big companies in Togo. The scoring method first identified tax risks determinants and then assessed and predicted that risk. The results show that in Togo, company size, transfer price, the leverage effect, the sector of activity, and the reputation of the accounting auditing firm negatively affect big companies' tax compliance. In contrast, total indebtedness, foreign shareholders' presence and tax incentives have a positive impact on their tax behaviour. With a predictive power of 75 per cent, this research empirically verifies that modern risk assessment methods improve the performance of the tax administration control system. Consequently, the Togolese Revenue Authority should focus on strengthening its control mechanism for big companies, particularly those involved in the financial sector. It should further prioritise the use of statistical and econometric methods to assess tax risk. However, an error margin of 25 per cent suggests the existence of other factors which could likely improve the appropriateness of the results.

  • Determinants of properties tax revenues in Sub-Saharan Africa: Case of Togo

    The objective of this study is to identify the determinants of property tax revenues in Togo. The data relate to the regions and prefectures and were collected from the services of the Togolese Revenue Authority (OTR) and from the Ministry of Justice over a period of five years (2016 to 2020). The results of the descriptive analysis show that the maritime region especially the capital Lomé alone generates more than 98 per cent of property tax revenues. The linear regression revealed that digitisation and awareness efforts influence positively the level of revenue collection. However, land disputes are an obstacle to the success of reforms that can optimise the mobilisation of property tax revenues.

  • Analysis of tax compliance determinants and property owners? Socio-economic profile in Benin

    Implementing efficient tax policy remains a central concern to leaders. Consequently, this article seeks to analyse the determinants of property tax compliance in Benin to ultimately establish the socio-economic profile of property owners. To achieve this, the article first regresses the partial proportional odds model to identify conditional and influential factors to taxpayers' compliance. This is followed by an exploratory multiple component analysis to build a property tax compliance index to establish a socio-economic profile of property owners. The results from a representative sample of 4 575 individuals have shown that in the presence of factors that measure political and social influences, the probability that a taxpayer has good tax morale is estimated at 71,978 per cent. The property tax compliance index value sits at 3,076, confirming that Beninese property owners are mostly non-compliant. It was deduced from these results that the typical Beninese taxpayer is a 'social taxpayer' strongly influenced by social norms. To improve the level of property tax compliance, the tax administrations of developing countries in general and that of Benin in particular, must implement a tax policy based on taxpayers' profiles. Further studies on the determination of the optimal property tax rate are essential in order to quantitatively assess the extent to which mobilisation performance can be enhanced by taking taxpayers' profiles into consideration.

  • Revenue enhancements in Kampala, Uganda: Lessons for other African cities

    The Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) are optimistic that reforms can yield substantial own source revenues if the reform strategy and implementation processes are well designed and executed. Within four years of establishment, the KCCA increased their own source revenue by more than 100 per cent. Kampala's success can be attributed to improved and modernised administrative processes and procedures, increased capacity, insourcing of requisite skills and knowledge and increased use of automation. The research underscores the successes of the KCCA's revenue enhancement from own source revenues, especially from the recurrent property tax, to identify lessons for other African local governments. To achieve its objective, the study used a literature review methodology. The evaluation from the literature collected involves a qualitative review of the strategy used by the KCCA since 2010 to enhance its own source revenue. It is noteworthy that research and analysis of impediments, bottlenecks, and key sources of revenue informed the reform strategy that was eventually developed and implemented by the KCCA. In addition, a strong focus was placed on reducing taxpayer compliance costs, increasing voluntary compliance, and increasing taxpayer and stakeholder engagements including the extensive use of social media. Consequently, Kampala's successes were achieved without the necessity of any legislative changes. Hence, the experience of Kampala offers valuable lessons for many African cities.

  • Challenges facing the property tax collection system: A case study of the City of Harare municipality

    This article assesses the challenges facing the City of Harare's property tax collection system and proposes measures to improve revenue collection. The research used interviews and questionnaires to collect data from the selected sample of 180 respondents that included municipality officials as well as 137 residents of Harare and 43 property tax administrators. The research used Excel to analyse the data. The findings from the study show that Harare Municipality is facing administrative challenges that have impacted its ability to meet revenue targets because they are not digitalised. Moreover, major challenges such as unawareness of property tax, inadequacy in the system and challenges associated with the digital era were also identified. This article suggests that the challenges can be resolved by investing in digital technology, infrastructure, taxpayer education, improving service delivery of water, road maintenance, refuse collection and street lighting, reducing political interference and improving transparency on the use of revenue from property tax.

  • An analysis of the effects of taxation on income inequalities in WAEMU

    This article analyses the potential effect that tax instruments have on income inequalities in sub-Saharan Africa particularly in the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU). Tax instruments are represented by various types of levies and taxes whereas income inequalities are estimated by the Gini index. Using the generalised method of moments over the period from 1990 to 2017, the results demonstrate that value-added tax, excise duties, and port charges have no effect on income inequalities whereas personal income tax and corporate income tax improve income distribution in the WAEMU. However, the globalisation of economies reverses the effect of corporate income tax. Moreover, tax progressivity reduces inequalities while the tax structure has no significant effect on income inequalities. To this end, the study recommends using direct and progressive tax instruments for the fight against inequalities. Similarly, the fight against aggressive tax optimisation must take a central stage in tax policies within an economy that is increasingly open to multinational companies.

  • Tax policy in WAEMU: Tax coordination or competition?

    The objective of this article is to evaluate the nature of tax policy in West African Economic and Monetary Union WAEMU countries with the view to strengthening economic integration. We estimate a spatial autoregressive model (SDM) over the period 2000 to 2017. The strategic tax tool used is that of tax burden and we demonstrate that the spatial autoregressive coefficient has overall significance. The results reveal that there exists a tax competition within the WAEMU zone which is acerbated by heterogonous socio-economic factors such as public expenditure, unemployment, the will to promote the provision of services, and free trade. This article concludes on possible orientations which could foster tax synergy amongst WAEMU countries.

Featured documents

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