Welcome to the ATAF Research Hub, your primary source for up-to-date insights and resources on African taxation. Our research hub offers valuable tools and publications curated to deepen your understanding of tax systems and policies across the continent. Explore our flagship publications, such as the African Tax Outlook, access comprehensive data and statistics in our ATAF Data Bank, and keep abreast of the latest scholarly articles in the African Multidisciplinary Tax Journal. Connect with fellow researchers through the Africa Tax Research Network and enrich your knowledge repository with resources from the Tax Academy Library. Whether you are a policymaker, academic, or tax professional, the ATAF Research Hub is your gateway to remaining at the forefront of the ever-evolving landscape of African taxation.

ATAF’s ATO publication arose from the necessity to make available reliable tax statistics and analyses pertaining to African tax administrations, with a view to improving the efficiency and effectiveness of member country taxation. It is a flagship African publication which provides valuable, practical, and relevant descriptive and analytical work on tax issues to improve tax administrations and informs tax policy formulation and implementation in Africa.

The publication assesses and compares participating countries against indicators in various categories: tax rates, tax bases, tax structure, revenue performance, tax administration, taxpayer service and compliance. These indicators are crucial to African tax authorities as they implement reforms and policies to broaden the tax base, narrow tax gaps, simplify and improve fairness in tax systems, enhance overall voluntary compliance, and keep policy makers informed on tax matters.

The databank is a synopsis of the one of the ATAF’s online data platform called the African Tax Outlook (ATO) data portal which displays and describes tax administrative, customs, and macroeconomic data of a wide array of African countries. This data is used every year to produce the annual editions of the ATO publication and related research papers.

This databank provides annual information which is updated every year. For comparison purposes, all monetary related data are displayed by using the Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) currency in US dollars. The PPP is defined, and its source explained. When exporting the ATO data or information from the ATAF databank – ATAF as a referencing source should always be mentioned.

Read more on the ATAF Data Bank here

The ATAF databank presents, assesses and compares ATO participating countries against indicators in the following broad categories (themes): tax bases, tax structure, revenue performance, and tax and Customs administration. These indicators are crucial to African tax authorities as they implement reforms and policies to broaden the tax base, narrow tax gaps, simplify and improve fairness in tax systems, enhance overall voluntary compliance, and keep policy makers informed on tax matters.

The ATRN links research, tax statistics and analysis to the tax administration mandate and academic theories. The ATRN was established at an ATAF-convened African Academic Forum in Nairobi in August 2013. The objectives of the network are as follows:

• Generate research results for use by policy-makers and tax administrators.

• Promote links between tax researchers, policy-makers and stakeholders.

• Build an independent network of academics, policy-makers, tax administrators and independent tax researchers in Africa.

• Influence the African tax research agenda.

The ATRN’s vision is to be the platform of choice for African Tax Research. The network’s mission is to facilitate African capacity for credible research in tax policy, administration, law and leadership.

Read more on the African Tax Research Network

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.

The Tax Administration Library (TAL), launched in 2021 is an initiative by ATAF to provide ATAF members with an online platform to showcase and share good practices, successful reform policy experiences and knowledge in tax matters through their existing publications. It is expected that through the TAL platform, the ATAF membership would leapfrog their tax reform initiatives by leveraging on existing Africa-grown solutions to improve tax systems in Africa.