News at ATAF

Ms. Yanga Mputa, South Africa’s first female Tax Ombud, is particularly passionate about making tax policies more inclusive and beneficial for women.

Citing ATAF’s flagship publication, the African Tax Outlook (ATO), ATAF’s Varsha Singh noted that, while improved from 2010, women still hold only 40.02% of employment across 42 member countries. Stressing the urgency for action.

ATAF remains committed to Africa’s growth and development through domestic resource mobilization, aligning with the ongoing process at the UN.

The heads and representatives of 43 Forum on Tax Administration members met for the 16th Plenary meeting of the OECD Forum on Tax Administration (FTA) in Singapore.

The 2023 ATAF Annual Meeting attracted over 406 officials from Ministries of Finance and African Tax Administrations of 42 African Union (AU) member states, Members of Parliament, Development Partners, other key partners.

African countries are strongly recommended to immediately enact DMTT rules to protect themselves from giving away taxing rights to developed countries on top-up tax arising from their own tax incentives.

The African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) signed a renewal of their Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a period of five years, agreeing to continue to work together towards the common objective of promoting fair and efficient tax systems and administrations in Africa.

The Annual Meetings are a must-attend event for anyone involved in tax in Africa, offering a unique platform for tax stakeholders, officials, and experts to engage in simultaneous meetings, seminars, and capacity-building workshops, all anchored by insightful plenary sessions.

The ATAF Executive Secretary pointed out that a continent that can mobilise its resources for the improvement of the quality of lives of the people, is one with adequate socioeconomic infrastructure, good educational institutions, quality healthcare, strong institutions, good governance, peace and generally a good standard of living.

ATAF has taken a significant step towards promoting fair and effective tax systems across Africa with the release of its revised Suggested Approaches to Drafting Domestic Minimum Top-up Tax (DMTT) Legislation.

Given the increasing digitisation of business models, the virtualisation of interactions, and the growing reliance on automated systems for taxpayer interfaces, it was imperative that tax professionals evolve to stay relevant.

This year’s conference discussed the digital transformation of tax administrations, tax compliance and enforcement technology, and emerging technologies and their potential impact on revenue administrations.

ATRN Congress participants listened to well researched paper submissions from 44 authors on the subject of ‘Contemporary Taxation Issues in Africa’.

In interviews with women in tax across Africa, the issue of women’s representation highlighted the critical role of tax as a development tool.

ATAF is pleased to note that some of the comments in the ATAF submission to the Report have been taken on board for further deliberations by Member States.

In his remarks, ATAF Executive Secretary Logan Wort spoke about the critical role of technology in protecting and advancing global economies in this era of digital interconnectivity.

Bangura’s impressive resume includes experience working for the State Comptroller’s Office of New York and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

ATAF’s experts are in Juba, South Sudan to provide technical support to the South Sudan National Revenue Authority so they can improve their tax dispute resolution process and procedures.

The Federal Inland Revenue Services of Nigeria’s Mr Femi Edgal, Deputy Director Tax/Head Exchange of Information – has been elected as the Chairperson of the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), EOI Technical Committee.

ATAF and Africa have, however, succeeded in gaining the inclusion of several provisions in the Amount A rules.

The brief discusses the role of supplementary policies in achieving the climate goals, with, for example, discussing the need for countries to assess and eventually eliminate harmful fossil fuel subsidies, in line with the commitments assumed by African countries under the Glasgow Pact.

ATAF and the AUC will work on rolling out the work plans of strategies to combat illicit financial flows and bring the African voice on tax matters to global discussions.

The ‘Qualified Minimum Domestic Top-up Tax (QMDTT)’ webinar will discuss the key features of the GloBE rules and the QMDTT, and how they will impact African countries’ tax administrations and domestic resource mobilisation.

Cross-border Assistance in Recovery of Tax Claims Workshop participants were introduced to the concept of the legal and operational frameworks in cross-border assistance in recovery of tax claims.

Recognizing that gender-based injustice stems from a host of public policy failures—including those related to state revenue collection and spending, ATAF recently studied 16 African nations’ tax systems to determine whether any are built on policies that aim to reduce gender inequality.

Information exchanged on the Standard helps tax authorities track income so that it can be taxed and support domestic needs.

The African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) is helping tax authorities across the continent #EmbraceEquity with a series of programmes designed to encourage gender-sensitive tax policies.

When it comes to gender, taxation plays a pivotal role in promoting gender equality by financing policies and programmes that address gender-based inequalities.

ATAF’s experts will work with LRA to prevent aggressive tax planning through transfer pricing by multinational enterprises, particularly in the financial services, gaming & betting and telecommunications sectors.

The ATRN Advisory Board was appointed to ensure the academic independence and integrity of the ATRN programme’s products and activities.

On 23rd November, in Pretoria, south Africa, the ATAF Women In Tax Network has elected a new board Member. Ms Veronique Herminie has been elected new board Chair, while Ms Jeneba Bangura was elected Vice-Chair.

PRETORIA – The African Tax Administration Forums (ATAF) conducted a poll on social media platforms Twitter and LinkedIn to ask the question ‘COVID-19 showed the disparities in Africa. How can revenues be raised from the informal sector?’

The NEXUS meeting urged African governments to implement progressive investment-related reforms to increase local and international trade that will leverage AfCFTA and boost Domestic Resource Mobilisation.

The African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF)’s 29th Cross Border Taxation (CBT) Technical Committee Meeting unanimously elected Ms Mercy Mbithi from the Kenya Revenue Authority as the Chair of the CBT.

A new study published by ATAF delves into gender considerations in the development of tax policies in member countries as a first step towards achieving tax parity across genders.

The training provided the tax auditors with a deeper understanding of the sector which will enable them to effectively audit the telecommunication sector.

Speaking at the 11th Africa Initiative meeting in Nairobi Kenya, Mr. Wort noted that the continent has been negatively affected by tax transparency on IFFs disproportionate to the rest of the world.

The first major event in the pipeline is a joint technical and consultative webinar, which will be held on 23 June 2022, and will engage experts on the African continent to provide input into the first draft of the background paper for the project and the draft agenda.

In order to improve tax revenue mobilization, the Madagascar Revenue Authority has embarked on a series of legislative, administrative, and institutional reforms in recent years.

Cet article est également disponible en français
Este artigo também está disponível em português

The second volume of the AMTJ contains 16 papers, featuring 27 authors from diverse backgrounds including African Tax administrations, Ministries of Finance, academia, policymakers private sector, and researchers.

2022 commenced with countries who have signed the Inclusive Framework agreement of October 2021 scrambling to attend a deluge of Inclusive Framework meetings with the purpose of designing the new rules agreed to in October, writes ATAF’s Thulani Shongwe.

During a joint ATAF and the Tax Administration Research Centre webinar called ‘Tax Audits in Africa: Policy and Administration Reflections’, administrations and academics shared good the overview of tax audits in Africa.

ATAF partnered with VERO – Finland’s tax administration to deliver long-term Technical Assistance to the Kenya Revenue Authority.

The context of ATAF’s Global Tax Governance Workshop was to create awareness amongst tax administrations on how the global tax governance architecture has emerged.

The 1st Sub-Committee on Tax and Illicit Finical Flows of the African Union’s Specialised Technical Committee on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning and Integration began by highlighting the need for African