IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/not/notcre/22-03.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

ICT, e-formalization and tax mobilisation efforts in sub-Saharan Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Cyril Chimilila
  • Vincent Leyaro

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of ICT and e-formalization on tax mobilization efforts in sub-Saharan Africa. Using a panel of 42 countries from 1991 to 2018 and applying appropriate model specifications; the empirical findings show that there is strong support that ICT (mobile subscription and internet usage) and e-formalization (e-government) enhanced tax mobilization efforts. There is scope to increase tax compliance and expand the tax base in SSA (tax mobilization efforts) through the increase in the usage of ICT that can be applied to simplify tax administration, reduce compliance costs, and provide convenience to taxpayers and enhance enforcement. It is equally important that other policies are skewed toward supporting the development of ICT in SSA countries, supporting the application to improve e-payments, formalization, and tax administration. Furthermore, tax administrations in SSA should take advantage of ICT in discouraging the use of cash in paying taxes to help reduce informality, integrate systems that use third-party information collected from e-payment platforms, and combine advanced data analysis to expand the tax base, enhance enforcement and increase taxpayer compliance.

Suggested Citation

  • Cyril Chimilila & Vincent Leyaro, 2022. "ICT, e-formalization and tax mobilisation efforts in sub-Saharan Africa," Discussion Papers 2022-03, University of Nottingham, CREDIT.
    • Handle: RePEc:not:notcre:22/03
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/credit/documents/papers/2022/22-03.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Roukiatou Nikiema & Pam Zahonogo, 2017. "Taxpayer behaviour and institutions in Sub-Saharan Africa," BeFinD Working Papers 0119, University of Namur, Department of Economics.
    2. Leandro Medina & Mr. Friedrich Schneider, 2018. "Shadow Economies Around the World: What Did We Learn Over the Last 20 Years?," IMF Working Papers 2018/017, International Monetary Fund.
    3. Anuradha Joshi & Wilson Prichard & Christopher Heady, 2014. "Taxing the Informal Economy: The Current State of Knowledge and Agendas for Future Research," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(10), pages 1325-1347, November.
    4. Timothy Besley & Torsten Persson, 2014. "Why Do Developing Countries Tax So Little?," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 28(4), pages 99-120, Fall.
    5. Bird, Richard M. & Zolt, Eric M., 2005. "The limited role of the personal income tax in developing countries," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 16(6), pages 928-946, December.
    6. Benno Torgler, 2007. "Tax Compliance and Tax Morale," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 4096.
    7. Im, Kyung So & Pesaran, M. Hashem & Shin, Yongcheol, 2003. "Testing for unit roots in heterogeneous panels," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 115(1), pages 53-74, July.
    8. Jan Hanousek & Filip Palda, 2004. "Quality of Government Services and the Civic Duty to Pay Taxes in the Czech and Slovak Republics, and other Transition Countries," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 57(2), pages 237-252, May.
    9. Bird, Richard M. & Martinez-Vazquez, Jorge & Torgler, Benno, 2008. "Tax Effort in Developing Countries and High Income Countries: The Impact of Corruption, Voice and Accountability," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 55-71, March.
    10. Engle, Robert & Granger, Clive, 2015. "Co-integration and error correction: Representation, estimation, and testing," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 39(3), pages 106-135.
    11. Tanzi, Vito & Zee, Howell H., 2000. "Tax Policy for Emerging Markets: Developing Countries," National Tax Journal, National Tax Association;National Tax Journal, vol. 53(2), pages 299-322, June.
    12. Chacaltana Janampa, Juan. & Leung, Vicky. & Lee, Miso., 2018. "New technologies and the transition to formality the trend towards e–formality," ILO Working Papers 994998792502676, International Labour Organization.
    13. North, Douglass C., 1989. "Institutions and economic growth: An historical introduction," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 17(9), pages 1319-1332, September.
    14. Joshi, Anuradha & Prichard, Wilson & Heady, Christopher, 2014. "Taxing the Informal Economy: The Current State of Knowledge and Agendas for Future Research," Working Papers 13663, Institute of Development Studies, International Centre for Tax and Development.
    15. Brautigam,Deborah & Fjeldstad,Odd-Helge & Moore,Mick (ed.), 2008. "Taxation and State-Building in Developing Countries," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521716192.
    16. Timothy Besley, 2013. "Making and Breaking Tax Systems," The Economic and Social Review, Economic and Social Studies, vol. 44(3), pages 297-321.
    17. Benno Torgler & Markus Schaffner & Alison Macintyre, 2007. "Tax Compliance, Tax Morale and Governance Quality," CREMA Working Paper Series 2007-17, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    18. Benno Torgler & Markus Schaffner & Alison Macintyre, 2007. "Tax Compliance, Tax Morale and Governance Quality," CREMA Working Paper Series 2007-17, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    19. Balamatsias, Pavlos, 2018. "Democracy and taxation," Economics - The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal (2007-2020), Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel), vol. 12, pages 1-28.
    20. Richard M. Bird & Eric M. Zolt, 2005. "Redistribution via Taxation: The Limited Role of the Personal Income Tax in Developing Countries (2005)," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper0507, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    21. Brautigam,Deborah & Fjeldstad,Odd-Helge & Moore,Mick (ed.), 2008. "Taxation and State-Building in Developing Countries," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521888158.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gwaindepi, Abel, 2019. "Domestic revenue mobilization in Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America: A comparative analysis since 1980," Lund Papers in Economic History 209, Lund University, Department of Economic History.
    2. Fjeldstad, Odd-Helge, 2013. "Taxation and Development: a Review of Donor Support to Strengthen Tax Systems in Developing Countries," Working Papers 13683, Institute of Development Studies, International Centre for Tax and Development.
    3. Fjeldstad, Odd-Helge, 2013. "Taxation and Development : A Review of Donor Support to Strengthen Tax Systems in Developing Countries," WIDER Working Paper Series 010, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Vitor Gaspar & Laura Jaramillo & Mr. Philippe Wingender, 2016. "Tax Capacity and Growth: Is there a Tipping Point?," IMF Working Papers 2016/234, International Monetary Fund.
    5. Marcus André Melo & Armando Barrientos & André Canuto Coelho, 2014. "Taxation, redistribution and the social contract in Brazil," Global Development Institute Working Paper Series iriba_wp11, GDI, The University of Manchester.
    6. Prichard, Wilson, 2016. "Electoral Competitiveness, Tax Bargaining and Political Incentives in Developing Countries: Evidence from Political Budget Cycles Affecting Taxation," Working Papers 13713, Institute of Development Studies, International Centre for Tax and Development.
    7. Bird, Richard M. & Zolt, Eric M., 2011. "Dual Income Taxation: A Promising Path to Tax Reform for Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 39(10), pages 1691-1703.
    8. Kodjo Adandohoin & Jean-Francois Brun, 2021. "The Role of Income and Property Taxes in Tax Transition and the Mediating Effect of Financial Development," Post-Print hal-03470540, HAL.
    9. Pallavi Roy & Mushtaq H. Khan, 2021. "Digitizing Taxation and Premature Formalization in Developing Countries," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 52(4), pages 855-877, July.
    10. Godwin Dube & Daniela Casale, 2019. "Informal sector taxes and equity: Evidence from presumptive taxation in Zimbabwe," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 37(1), pages 47-66, January.
    11. Dagmara Nikulin & Ewa Lechman, 2021. "Shadow Economy in Poland: Results of the Survey," SpringerBriefs in Economics, in: Shadow Economy in Poland, chapter 0, pages 49-65, Springer.
    12. Adandohoin, Kodjo, 2018. "Tax transition in developing countries: Do VAT and excises really work?," MPRA Paper 91522, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    13. Andersson, Jens & Lazuka, Volha, 2019. "Long-term drivers of taxation in francophone West Africa 1893–2010," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 294-313.
    14. Leanora Alecia Brown & Jorge Martinez-Vazquez, 2015. "International Debt Forgiveness: Who Gets Picked and Its Effect On The Tax Effort Of Developing Countries," International Center for Public Policy Working Paper Series, at AYSPS, GSU paper1504, International Center for Public Policy, Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University.
    15. Kodjo Adandohoin, 2021. "Tax transition in developing countries: do value added tax and excises really work?," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 18(2), pages 379-424, May.
    16. Jean-François Brun & Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2019. "Tax reform, public revenue and public revenue instability in developing countries: Does development aid matter?," CERDI Working papers halshs-02089734, HAL.
    17. Jean-François Brun & Sèna Kimm Gnangnon, 2019. "Tax reform, public revenue and public revenue instability in developing countries: Does development aid matter?," Working Papers halshs-02089734, HAL.
    18. Marina Nistotskaya & Michelle D'Arcy, 2021. "No taxation without property rights: Formalization of property rights on land and tax revenues from individuals in sub-Saharan Africa," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2021-175, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    19. Olusegun Ayodele Akanbi, 2019. "State Institutions and Tax Capacity: An Empirical Investigation of Causality," IMF Working Papers 2019/177, International Monetary Fund.
    20. Anda David & Yoro Diallo & Björn Nilsson, 2023. "Informality and Inequality: The African Case," Journal of African Economies, Centre for the Study of African Economies, vol. 32(Supplemen), pages 273-295.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ICT; e-formalization; tax effort; sub-Saharan Africa;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:not:notcre:22/03. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Hilary Hughes (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cenotuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.