International Centre for Tax and Development

04/09/2026

Can simply increasing the visibility of tax officials help build trust with taxpayers?

📝 New ICTD research from Tanzania finds that increased exposure to tax officials can significantly shape taxpayer attitudes and behaviour. Using a randomised field experiment covering 1,210 small businesses, the study shows that the effects of outreach vary markedly across contexts.

🔎 Trust and compliance increased in relatively wealthier regions, but declined in poorer and more marginalised areas.

The findings suggest that taxpayer engagement strategies cannot be assumed to build trust everywhere. For revenue authorities and development partners understanding local conditions maybe just as important as the design of the intervention itself.

Read the paper here: https://ow.ly/JCze50ZIT41

Short on time? Check out the 2-page summary below ⬇️

27/08/2026

At the Forum on the Future of Tax Reform hosted by ICTD and Zambia Revenue Authority participants were divided across four critical working groups to explore the various dimensions of tax reform.

Co-organised with Open Society Foundations, the POLITICS working group examined how rising debt, declining aid, and pressure to raise revenue quickly are reshaping the politics of tax reform.

When asked what can build citizens' trust in tax reform, Grieve Chelwa said: taxing the rich.

The Africa Institute

Rich

25/08/2026

After attending the 34th edition of the International Association for Feminist Economics (IAFFE) conference, Eugénie Ribault (PhD student at Institute of Development Studies) was surprised to realise how little gender had featured in her formal education.

"I had studied development economics, worked on tax and public finance for several years, and considered myself familiar with questions of inequality. Yet gender had rarely featured as a central analytical lens in my economic training", she said.

The conference challenged some of her assumptions and left her with three key reflections on gender, economics and research. Read more ⬇️

I studied development economics in a traditional (or orthodox) way. Gender was not a concept I was taught. In fact, during my MA, I don’t recall gender being included among the factors we learnt about when explaining the economic and financial choices made by individuals. Nor do I remember learning how gender norms could affect macroeconomic aggregates such as tax revenues, spending allocations or even the famous “GDP”(or Gross Domestic Product). The topic that came closest to feminist economics was women’s participation in the labour market as a means of strengthening economic growth. That was it. What a disconnected perspective of the real world!

This absence of gender analysis in my training now seems striking. Economic decisions do not take place in a vacuum: they are shaped by social norms, power relations, and unequal access to resources. Feminist economics provides the tools to examine these dynamics and question assumptions that traditional economic approaches often leave unchallenged.

Participating in this conference further convinced me of the usefulness and necessity of feminist economics, as well as my desire to contribute to this field.

The full blog is available here: https://ow.ly/GJIW50ZyEsy

In early July, I participated in the 34th IAFFE conference that challenged some of my assumptions on gender, economics and research.

24/08/2026

At the Forum on the Future of Tax Reform hosted by ICTD and Zambia Revenue Authority authority were divided across four critical working groups to explore the various dimensions of tax reform.

Co-organised with Open Society Foundations, the POLITICS working group examined how rising debt, declining aid, and pressure to raise revenue quickly are reshaping the politics of tax reform.

We asked Shandana Khan Mohmand (Institute of Development Studies) what the biggest challenge to implementing tax reform is and what it takes to achieve it⬇️

20/08/2026

As states increasingly digitalise fiscal systems to strengthen revenue capacity, the spread of cashless payments offers new tools for enhancing tax compliance and administrative efficiency.

📝 In our latest working paper, Lucia Rossel and Fabrizio Santoro draw on data from around 6,000 formal businesses across Burkina Faso, Ghana, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda to explore how digital merchant payments relate to firms' view of taxation and tax compliance.

🔎 The findings suggest that while digital payment adoption is associated with factors such as financial literacy and integration into digital value chains, cash remains dominant and the relationship between cashless payments and tax perceptions varies across countries.

This highlights the importance of policies that support wider adoption while addressing barriers to use.

🔗Read the paper here: https://ow.ly/91YP50ZyQOH

Short on time? Check out the 2-page summary below ⬇️

19/08/2026

At the Forum on the Future of Tax Reform hosted by ICTD and Zambia Revenue Authority, participants were divided across four critical working groups to explore the various dimensions of tax reform.

Co-organised with Gates Foundation, the SYSTEMS working group explored AI as a potentially useful, but conditional tool for working with tax-relevant data under real-world constraints.

On the conditions that need to be in place before AI can be used effectively and responsibly in tax administrations, Joy Waruguru (African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF)) talked about legal frameworks ⬇️

18/08/2026

🚨Don't miss tomorrow's webinar on AI and DPI for African tax administration!

🔗Register now: https://ow.ly/z7cP50ZArFu

Drawing on experiences from revenue authorities in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Kenya, Zambia and beyond, researchers and practitioners will look beyond the promise of new technologies to consider the infrastructure, institutional capacity and governance arrangements needed to deploy them effectively and responsibly.

🗨️The discussion will cover:

- Which AI applications are already feasible for tax administrations, and which depend on stronger DPI foundations;
- Practical lessons from African revenue authorities on chatbots, data infrastructure, institutional capacity and managing technology providers;
- The governance and taxpayer-rights safeguards needed as AI becomes more embedded in compliance and enforcement; and
- Where further research and evidence are most needed to inform policy and investment decisions.

⚠️Register now and join us tomorrow at 11am UTC.

African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF)

This webinar examines what AI adoption means for African tax administrations and which applications need stronger DPI foundations.

18/08/2026

We are sad to announce the suspension of our flagship Research on Tax and Development course, due to start in autumn 2026. This difficult decision is due to a reduction in funding for our teaching and learning programme from 2027 onward, with the current cycle formally concluding in December 2026.

Whilst ICTD is seeking to secure new funds to continue this area of work, the team behind the successful course is taking the opportunity to review the experiences of the past decade and explore innovations in the course’s structure and content for future iterations.

Max Gallien, ICTD Research Director and co-lead of the course, said: For over a decade, this course has been at the heart of ICTD’s mission to foster locally led research that makes tax systems fairer and more effective. The fact that year after year we received over 600 applications for only a small number of slots demonstrates the immense and growing demand for research skills around tax and development.

Giovanni Occhiali, ICTD Senior Research Fellow and co-lead of the course, added: We are of course sad to have to make the difficult decision to suspend the programme, but are also immensely proud of what our alumni have achieved. Over the years, the course has contributed to creating a community of researchers and practitioners committed to building fairer tax systems, all of whom will continue to thrive. We hope that this is just a pause rather than an end as we look for new ways to continue this essential work.

🔗Read the full story: https://ow.ly/YSYR50ZAtXn

ICTD is suspending its flagship Research on Tax and Development course due to a reduction in funding for its teaching and learning programme.

17/08/2026

Artificial intelligence is generating growing interest among tax administrations across Africa, with potential applications ranging from taxpayer services and chatbots to risk assessment, audit selection and fraud detection. But AI does not operate in isolation ⚙️

With the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) we are hosting a webinar to examine what AI adoption means in practice for African tax administrations.

🗨️We will discuss:

- Which AI applications are already feasible for tax administrations, and which depend on stronger DPI foundations;
- Practical lessons from African revenue authorities on chatbots, data infrastructure, institutional capacity and managing technology providers;
- The governance and taxpayer-rights safeguards needed as AI becomes more embedded in compliance and enforcement; and
- Where further research and evidence are most needed to inform policy and investment decisions.

📆Event details:
🕛Date and time: Wednesday 19 August at 11 am UTC
🔗Register now: https://ow.ly/q84A50ZArCe

14/08/2026

📢 We need your input!

The Coalition on Tax Expenditure Reform (COATE), co-founded by the ICTD, has launched a public consultation on draft voluntary minimum standards for tax expenditure reporting.

We are inviting feedback from governments, international organisations, researchers, civil society organisations, and other stakeholders. Your input will help shape the final set of principles and indicators, which will be published later this year.

💬 ICTD Senior Research Fellow and member of the COATE steering committee Giovanni Occhiali said: "Tax expenditures can play an important role in supporting investment and broader policy objectives, but governments need reliable information to understand their costs and impacts"

He added: "These draft standards aim to provide a practical and achievable baseline for improving transparency, while recognising the very different capacities and starting points across countries."

📧 The consultation is open until 30 September 2026 and comments should be submitted to [email protected].

Read more about the consultation and the draft minimum standards here ➡️ https://ow.ly/r0Hq50ZzlZa

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