Blogs

by Marie Reine Mukazayire, Colette Nyirakamana & Camille Barras

Building public support for property tax reform in senegal through sensitization and communication campaigns

The authors would like to thank the officials of the DGID and the Treasury of Senegal,…

General street scene in Hamar Weyne market in the Somali capital Mogadishu

by Vanessa van den Boogaard

Why tax matters in fragile states and how donors can support it

Fragile contexts are home to 24% of the world’s population (1.9 billion people), and three-quarters (73%)…

A customer counts cash before having funds transferred to his phone at a mobile money exchange.

Taxes, trust, and transparency: Lessons for Ghana’s fiscal future

by Avi Ahuja

Ghanaian President John Mahama’s government presented its much-awaited 2025 budget last month. In it, Finance Minister…

group of participants in the UNDP high-level symposium

With aid declining, FfD4 must include a concrete commitment to scale up investment in tax systems

by Giulia Mascagni

I recently took part in the third high-level symposium of the UNDP’s Finance, Integrity and Governance…

by Alexandra Readhead, Agustín Redonda, Christian von Haldenwang, Giovanni Occhiali & Hazel Granger

FfD4 Countdown: A Watered-Down Proposal on Tax Expenditures Risks Undermining Countries’ Domestic Revenue Mobilisation

Governments’ decisions to grant preferential tax treatments have a direct impact on their ability–or inability–to finance…

Fingerprint scanner on transparent screen

by Fabrizio Santoro & Lucia Rossel

From Identification to Stronger Tax Administration: Can Digital IDs Deliver?

In many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), strengthening state capacity and expanding the tax base are…

Donald Trump standing behind a microphone with a book in hand and in front of a background of white and red strips.

The collapse of international tax truce: Trump’s impact on digital taxation

by Florian Dierich

U.S. President Donald Trump’s decisions have triggered significant shifts in international politics with ripple effects extending…

Photo of a phone screen sending mobile money load

by Max Gallien, Martin Hearson & Mary Abounabhan

Ghana’s e-levy: 3 lessons from the abolished mobile money tax

The e-levy’s intense politicisation and complex design made it an interesting case of a wider trend of mobile money taxes in the region. We learned more about the e-levy’s impact on informal sector workers in Accra, knowledge and sentiments, registered merchant exemptions and mobile money usage….

Woman carrying a large bowl of shea nuts with a baby tied behind her back in Ghana.

by Giulia Mascagni, Caren Grown & Rhiannon McCluskey

Time for a broader, bolder approach to tax justice for women

As policymakers gather to discuss gender and tax at the UN today, this blog draws on research to call for moving beyond a narrow focus on gender bias in tax policy toward a broader, more effective feminist fiscal approach to advance gender equality. …

A photo of the UN Headquarters in New York with flags of several countries flying high.

A decision on decision-making and no disputes on dispute resolution: the Organizational Session for UN Tax negotiations

by Frederik Heitmüller

Last month’s organizational session was not a mundane discussion of practical organizational matters. After a new bureau was elected and the dust following the dramatic exit of the United States from the negotiations had settled, most of the energy was spent on a single topic: reaching a compromise on how the negotiating committee would reach its decisions….

Wide shot of people in a street in Lahore, Pakistan.

by Max Gallien, Umair Javed & Vanessa van den Boogaard

Pakistanis are paying over 1.7 billion GBP in zakat every year—mostly to women

Every year, hundreds of millions of Muslims across the world pay a proportion – broadly 2,5%…

Close up shot of a person's hands holding loads of Nigerian cash