The taxation of informal economies is one of the key challenges for tax professionals and policymakers in Africa. Across a range of country contexts, current methods are often disappointing from a revenue standpoint and can have sensitive equity implications. At the same time, pressures on revenue authorities to collect more taxes from unregistered firms are substantial.
Over the past few years, the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) has conducted research and policy dialogues on taxation and informal economies in Africa. We believe that now is a critical time to have a new conversation on the topic, bringing together both researchers and key stakeholders for a dedicated retreat.
In collaboration with the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) and Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising (WIEGO), ICTD will be hosting a focused workshop in Akosombo, Ghana from 18th to 21st February 2025 that seeks to chart new ways forward in how revenue authorities engage with informal economies.
Format
The workshop will include both presentations on current research and policy practice and extensive breakout groups that focus on learning between revenue authorities as well as mapping out promising areas of policy development and best practice. Key themes will be tax registration, presumptive taxation, targeting and equity implications and working with informal workers. The participants include research and civil society organisations alongside representatives from over a dozen revenue authorities.
While the workshop will be held under the Chatham House rule in order to ensure confidential and constructive conversations, we will publish key findings alongside blogs from participants on this website in the coming weeks.
Ongoing work
On top of long-standing partnerships with revenue authorities, WIEGO, and ATAF, the workshop also draws on ICTD research on tax and informality in the past few years. See below for two recent outputs with some of our key partners for the workshop:
