An Analysis of the Tax Revenue Components in Sub-Sahara Africa

Abstract

Reforming the tax system in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) will require a closer look at the individual tax revenue components, not just tax revenues as a whole. The findings in this paper established that tax revenue determinants affect the individual tax revenue components in different ways. In this connection, we find that the tax structure in SSA is skewed towards indirect taxes because the existing structural, institutional and policy characteristics in these countries are not conducive for the collection of direct taxes. On the other hand, indirect taxes are less susceptible to these influences, hence can be collected with little effort.JEL Classifications: H2, C23, O55

Budget Deficit and Fiscal Administration In Selected Sub-Saharan African Countries

“…The findings of the study are generally in agreement with prior empirical studies (Perotti, 2004;Gollwitzer, 2010;Taiwo, Abayomi, 2011;Peter, Simeon, 2011;Edame, Ejue, 2013;Feger, 2014;Onyemaechi, 2014;Tchouassi, Ngwen, 2015;Veiga, et al, 2015 andXolani, Amanja, 2015) that efficiency in budgeting as evidenced in the magnitude of budget deficit is affected by the strings of fiscal administration among countries in SSA. However, the above findings are not totally in agreement with those of Nkalu (2015) and Nwaeke, Korgbeelo (2016) who believes that budget deficit had negative statistical effect on economic indices and by extension, fiscal administration.…”

The effect of illicit financial flows on government revenues in the West African Economic and Monetary Union countries

“…In addition to economic determinants, performance in public revenue mobilization may be affected by the institutional context. Various studies have shown that tax collection is one of the most important areas where corruption is most likely to appear (Feger, 2014;Hossain, 2014;Syadullah & Wibowo, 2015). Ajaz and Ahmad (2010) and Imam and Jacobs ( 2014) confirms these findings.…”

“…The choice of these variables as explanatory variables is relevant insofar as they allow us to have an idea of the effect of the institutional quality on government revenue mobilization and of a possible policy to fight illicit financial flows. Recently, theoretical and empirical studies have both highlighted the effect of institutional factors on government revenue mobilization (Feger, 2014;Hossain, 2014;Syadullah & Wibowo, 2015). The institutional quality measures come from the data set compiled by Kaufmann et al (2010).…”

On the government revenue on economic growth of Sub-Saharan Africa: Does institutional quality matter?

“…Previously, the work of Ref. [ 29 ] found that the existing policy structure of SSA countries matters the tax revenue components and their corresponding impact on economic growth. From the analysis made, the study found that indirect tax tends to be supported by the existing policy structure of SSA countries.…”