Mozambique receives focused audit assistance from ATAF

PRETORIA – The African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) in collaboration with Taxing Efficiently for Developing Inclusively (TEDI) launched the first series Technical Assistance (TA) to the Mozambique Revenue Administration (MRA).

This joint initiative forms part of a broader technical assistance programme funded by the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO). 

The first of a series of technical assistance missions took place over three days from 24 to 28 February 2022 and was aimed at equipping auditors from the Mozambique Revenue Authority, with critical knowledge and tools to be effectively audit insurance companies, insurance income for tax purposes. 

It therefore focused on unpacking key aspects of the insurance industry including providing an industry overview, explaining the different classes of insurance businesses and exploring key terminologies, identifying deductible and non-deductible expenses, as well as various sources of income and computing the said taxable income. 

Increasingly Revenue authorities are placing more and more emphasis on pairing the type of tax return at hand with auditors with the right skill profile to handle them. The rationale behind this approach is to ensure that complex audit cases are handled by tax officials with sufficient understanding of the sector involved. Developing such “industry specialists” is therefore crucial in order to optimise revenue collection in the sector. 

In the long term, the trained auditors will not only be able to apply the knowledge and expertise acquired in the auditing of insurance companies, but also act as internal consultants by providing assistance to other auditors in cases associated with this area. 

Participants expressed great appreciation for the training which they described as “insightful and practical”. 

“In the past we have primarily relied on external consultants to be able to deal with insurance sector cases efficiently. This training has given us a much better understanding of this sector and, I’m confident that we now have the resources internally to handle these cases more efficiently in future”, said one of the participants. 

In 2021 alone, ATAF conducted 87Technical assistance mission to address requests from Members and the figure is growing. In response to this, the organisation has streamlined its approach to TA to be able to respond effectively while maintaining its country-focused model and ensuring joint ownership of the programme’s outcomes with the recipient Member. 

The organisation also recently published an overview of its 2022 Technical Assistance Offerings. 

“While this list is fairly comprehensive in terms of the key focus areas of our TA offerings to members, it is in no way exhaustive; a large part of our TA remains demand-driven and therefore often includes country-specific requests such as the one we have just conducted with Mozambique.

We certainly intend to continue to respond and possibly multiply this type of TAs going forward”, said ATAF’s Technical Assistance Manager, Ms Sameera Khan.