AFRICAN TAX OUTLOOK

ATAF Flagship Publication - AFRICAN TAX OUTLOOK (ATO)

INTRODUCTION

The ATAF’s ATO was successfully launched on 26th June 2016 with 15 member countries - Burundi, Cameroon, Kenya, Lesotho, Mauritius, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, The Gambia, Togo, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Six (6) additional countries joined the second edition which was published and launched on 15th August 2017: Benin, Botswana, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria and Zambia. During the preparation to the 3rd edition called the 2018 ATO publication, 5 new countries joined: Angola, Chad, Ghana, Malawi, and Niger, and this edition is due to be published and launched on 30th July 2018 in Rwanda. The 2019 ATO publication has already attracted 6 more countries which are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Madagascar, Morocco, Namibia and Sierra Leone, thus bringing the total number of participating countries in this seminal project to 32.  

The first 4 editions of the ATO publication bring together valuable, practical and relevant descriptive and analytical information on tax issues from 2010 to 2017. 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.

BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT

The ATAF’s African Tax Outlook 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 inform tax policy formulation and implementation in Africa.

For a successful preparation of each annual ATO publication, two key workshops are scheduled to take place prior to the year of publication: Consultative Workshop combined with the Validation Worksop attended by the Heads of Research of tax administrations and the Capacity Building Workshop attended by the data collectors. 
OBJECTIVES OF ATO

The main purpose of the ATO is to establish an African flagship publication, aiming to be a source of reliable information on taxation that will serve as an African and global reference and an important barometer for businesses; in other words, creating a reference manual mainly for African tax administrations, tax policy makers, tax practitioners and businesses. 

The African Tax Outlook publication is intended to
  • Be used for improved cross-country or regional comparisons and benchmarking
  • Serve evidence-based recommendations to reform tax policies and tax administrations.
  • Provide an analysis of the data in terms of taxation trends around the continent, identification of good practices, and inferences on the heterogeneity of the tax data over time and across countries.
  • Provide comparable data on tax policy, tax administration and tax legislation;
PREPARATION PHASES OF THE ATO PUBLICATION

The main steps in preparing, drafting and publishing the 3rd ATO edition are as follows:

Preparation Phase: Expression of Interest Countries in taking part in the ATO project.

Consultative Workshop: This is a workshop specifically aimed to bring together the Heads of Research/Strategic Planning/Revenue Statistics of tax administration.

Capacity Building Workshop: This is a workshop specifically aimed at Data collectors of tax administrations.

Roll-out and Data Collection Process (online ATO portal): To manage the data collection process.

Data Analysis Phase: The preliminary ATO storyline, descriptive statistics, trends and critical analysis to be developed.

Validation Workshop: This is a workshop specifically aimed at the Heads of Research/Strategic Planning/Revenue Statistics of tax administrations and the ATO team will agree on the final storyline which will guide the drafting of the ATO publication.

Drafting of the Tax Outlook Publication: The ATAF research team with the ATO selected focal points will draft the final reports i.e. the ATO main report, the ATO executive summary and the ATO highlight report. In addition, they will incorporate in the final outputs comments and suggestions received from the ATAF research team, the technical writer and reviewers. 

The launch of the African Tax Outlook Publications, printed in English, French and Portuguese, are always launched during major ATAF events and they are available to the public.

For general queries, information, please contact us via:
Email: fmbuyamba@ataftax.org 
Tel.: +27 12 451 8834 / +27636893896
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