Research in Brief

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Should Governments Tax Digital Financial Services? A Research Agenda to Understand Sector-specific Taxes on DFS

This publication is also available in French

Low-income countries are facing strong pressure to bring in more revenue at home. With digital financial services (DFS) rapidly expanding across Africa and other low-income countries a growing number are therefore considering new taxes on DFS. In light of the heated debate over DFS taxes, this paper explores the rationale for these taxes and their likely impacts in order to help governments and other stakeholders arrive at policies that best meet their competing needs.

Summary of Working Paper 136 by Mary Abounabhan, Laura Munoz, Giulia Mascagni, Wilson Prichard, and Fabrizio Santoro.

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Publication Details

Date

10 June 2022

Publisher

ICTD

Research theme

Digital Public Infrastructure and Tax, Tax Administration and Compliance

Programme

DIGITAX Research Programme

Keywords

digital financial services digital IDs tax administration tax compliance

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Authors

Mary Abounabhan

Researcher

Laura Muñoz Perez

Giulia Mascagni

Executive Director

Wilson Prichard

Associate Research Fellow, ICTD and Chair, LoGRI

Fabrizio Santoro

Senior Research Fellow

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