Revenue Administration in Sub-Saharan Africa - International Tax ...

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• All surveyed revenue bodies have specified, in their administrative procedures,a time within which VAT refund claims should be settled.• The VAT assessment period is 30 days in most countries except Mauritius andSouth Africa.Taxation of small and micro enterprises• All revenue bodies, except Botswana and Mauritius, have put in place aspecialized taxation regime for small and micro enterprises.• Six revenue bodies have also set up dedicated units responsible foradministering these regimes.• In most countries, incorporated businesses are excluded from the smallbusiness regime.• In some (not all) countries, lower (harmonized with the threshold for PIT) andupper thresholds (VAT registration threshold) have been established foreligibility under the presumptive taxation regime.• Five countries have established a one-stop-shop business registration officethat also handles registration for tax purposes.• All revenue bodies (except Botswana) require taxpayers in this segment toperiodically file returns and pay taxes, but the filing requirements vary acrosscountries and sub-categories of small and micro businesses (including the selfemployed).• Small and micro enterprises account for about 3% of total tax revenue.Use of modern electronic applications in tax administration• All revenue bodies (except Burundi) have a separate and substantive in-houseIT function.• Eight revenue bodies have and/or are developing an ITAS.• The most common approach used for implementing an ITAS is purchasingeither a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) solution or a tax solution developedfor a third country and customizing it (using a combination of local andexternal resources) for local conditions.• Only Tanzania developed an ITAS largely from scratch using both in-house andexternal resources.• Majority of the revenue bodies are still dissatisfied with the performance oftheir IT systems.• Most of the revenue bodies maintain their systems using in-house resourceswith occasional support from private vendors.• Self-help services such as electronic registration, filing and payment are beingimplemented in a few countries.59
A. Taxpayer registration and design of taxpayer identifiersIntroductionTaxpayer registration is the first point of contact and the initial level of the taxcompliance process. Modern revenue administrations therefore strive to develop andmaintain quality and up-to-date taxpayers’ registers. Revenue bodies were asked toprovide detailed information on their taxpayer registration systems.Survey results (Table 17)• Most of the revenue bodies indicated that they assign taxpayers anidentification number ostensibly across all tax types, including customs.• The taxpayer identification number is comprised of between 8 (Malawi andSierra Leone) to 13 characters (Zambia).• The characters are either numeric (10 revenue bodies) or a combination of bothnumeric and alphabetic (5 revenue bodies).• Seven revenue bodies reported they have additional identifiers for CIT and VAT.Key observationsTo effectively manage taxpayer compliance across all tax types, modern revenueadministrations typically implement taxpayer identification systems that combineboth simplicity and uniqueness in design. Progress, therefore, has been made in thisarea, including in a few countries, implementation of one-stop-shop businessregistration offices 85 and automated registration and fingerprint identificationsystems. 86 Seven revenue bodies reported they have additional identifiers for CIT, PITand VAT. Implementation of a common unique taxpayer identifier across all tax-typesis generally regarded as good practice. Effective cross-matching of data using availablesystems and, where possible, investing in additional data warehouse and data-miningsolutions, skills and capacities would also greatly contribute to strengthening thecompliance management process.85 Mauritius, Sierra Leone and South Africa indicated they have set up one-stop-shop registration offices.86 However, IMF experience shows that the quality and integrity of the taxpayer registration roll is questionable in mostcountries. The use of the common identify to manage taxpayer compliance has also remained grossly undeveloped andunder-utilized. For example, it has been demonstrated in some countries that a number of large importers are notregistered for either income tax or VAT.60
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INTERNATIONALTAXDIALOGUE2010Revenue
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Table 12: Total cost of collection
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PCCAPAYEPITPSVRAGBRRARTSASACUSARSSS
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Executive summaryRevenue administra
Page 9 and 10: Institutional arrangements for reve
Page 11 and 12: • All unified semi-autonomous rev
Page 13 and 14: B. Scope of revenue bodies’ respo
Page 15 and 16: C. Relative autonomy of revenue bod
Page 17 and 18: Survey results (Table 3)• All rev
Page 19 and 20: Key observationsRevenue administrat
Page 21 and 22: You are entitled to expect SARS:Box
Page 23 and 24: Box 4: An example of a codified set
Page 25 and 26: Table 2: Tax and non-tax revenues a
Page 27 and 28: Table 4: Decision making structures
Page 29 and 30: The organization of revenue bodiesC
Page 31 and 32: The ‘taxpayer segment’ model: A
Page 33 and 34: Key observationsSurvey results indi
Page 35 and 36: Box 6: The common characteristics o
Page 37 and 38: C. Office network and staffingIntro
Page 39 and 40: Table 7: Selected features of the o
Page 41 and 42: Table 9: Number of staff and distri
Page 43 and 44: A. Strategic planning and managemen
Page 45 and 46: Key observationsThe corporate plann
Page 47 and 48: Table 10: Selected management pract
Page 49 and 50: A. An overview of funding mechanism
Page 51 and 52: B. Revenue administration expenditu
Page 53 and 54: Table 13: Share of total wage bill
Page 55 and 56: Revenue performance 76Chapter VKey
Page 57 and 58: Table 15: Revenue collection data f
Page 59: Domestic tax return filing, assessm
Page 63 and 64: VAT• All the surveyed countries h
Page 65 and 66: C. Taxation of small and micro-busi
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Page 69 and 70: Table 18: PIT filing, assessment an
Page 71 and 72: CountryHow is the final annual PIT
Page 73 and 74: Table 20: VAT filing, assessment an
Page 75 and 76: CountryTable 21: Taxation of small
Page 77 and 78: CountryBasis used todeterminetaxMal
Page 79 and 80: Use of electronic application in ta
Page 81 and 82: Legal and administrative powers of
Page 83 and 84: functions. These powers are also co
Page 85 and 86: Table 26: Information gathering pow
Page 87 and 88: CountryTable 28: Interest and admin
Page 89 and 90: CountryTable 29: Interest and admin
Page 91 and 92: CountrySouth AfricaTanzaniaUgandaZa
Page 93 and 94: CountryMalawiMauritiusRwandaSierraL
Page 95 and 96: AnnexesAnnex 1: Organization struct
Page 97 and 98: KRABoard of DirectorsCommissionerGe
Page 99 and 100: ZRABoard of DirectorsCommissionerGe
Page 101 and 102: ERCADirector GeneralAdvisory BoardE
Page 103 and 104: MauRABoard ofDirectorsInternal Audi
Page 105 and 106: Clarify SARS’operatingmodel,strea
Page 107 and 108: Enhancethe URAcorporateimageLevel o
Page 109 and 110: KRAMissionVisionValuesTo promote co
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ZRAMissionVisionValuesTo maximize a
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MauRAMissionVisionValuesTo continua
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GRAMissionVisionValuesTo supervise
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Source: ECRA• Cross cutting issue
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MalawiType of taxRevenue collected
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GhanaTax categoryRevenue collection
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