Informal Taxation in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone: Taxpayerss Experiences and Perceptions

The Fiscal Cost of Conflict: Evidence from La Violencia in Colombia

“…Cárdenas (2010), Thies (2005) and Lu and Thies (2013) empirically support this argument using cross-country evidence from Latin America and the Middle East. Likewise, Barrett (2018) and Jibao, Prichard, and Van den Boogaard (2017) find the same adverse effects of conflict using within-country data from Afghanistan and Sierra Leone, respectively. While the former uncovers a negative impact of conflict on provincially-collected central government revenues, the latter present evidence of weak fiscal institutions in the aftermath of civil war.…”

Taxing Informality: Compliance and Policy Preferences in Urban Zambia

“…Since informal workers are embedded in multi-level governance structures, disparate compliance mechanisms exert differential impacts. Unlike those in the formal sector, informal workers must pay a range of authorities to operate their businesses and have access to critical services (Jibao, Prichard, & van den Boogaard, 2017;Meagher, 2018;Olken & Singhal, 2011). Vigilantes may extort payment in exchange for security or private gain while cooperatives may collect levies to provide local public goods.…”

Innovations in Tax Compliance: Conceptual Framework

“…Recent surveys in Sierra Leone and the DRC both find that taxpayers report surprisingly limited understanding of the taxes that are due. 99 Discussions with small traders in Ghana, and elsewhere, similarly reveal significant difficulty in accessing information about the tax system, 100 while small firms often face substantial complexity and administrative hurdles to enter the formal sector. 101 Reflecting this concern, there has been mounting interest across countries in expanding taxpayer education.…”