DIGITAX Research Programme

Programme

DIGITAX Research Programme

The DIGITAX programme generated knowledge and evidence as well as delivered advice and support to governments and other stakeholders on overcoming challenges and leveraging opportunities at the interface of digital financial services (DFS), digital IDs, and tax.

Our robust, relevant, and cutting-edge research looked at:
• the taxation of mobile money and other DFS, and;
• the digitalisation of tax systems across lower-income countries, with a particular focus on Africa.

DIGITAX, which ran from 2020 to 2024, was funded by the Gates Foundation.

DIGITAX Research Programme

Key Resources

DIGITAX Research Programme Library

Working Paper

Digital financial services and digital IDs: What potential do they have for better taxation in Africa?

February 2022
Fabrizio Santoro, Laura Muñoz Perez, Wilson Prichard, Giulia Mascagni

Working Paper

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

February 2022
Laura Muñoz Perez, Giulia Mascagni, Wilson Prichard, Fabrizio Santoro

Working Paper

The Promise and Limitations of Information Technology for Tax Mobilisation

February 2022
Oyebola Okunogbe, Fabrizio Santoro

Research in Brief

There and Back Again: The Making of Uganda’s Mobile Money Tax

October 2021
Adrienne Lees, Doris Akol

Working Paper

There and Back Again: The Making of Uganda’s Mobile Money Tax

July 2021
Doris Akol, Adrienne Lees

In person

18 September 2025 – 09:00

•

Timezone: UTC

Century City Conference Centre, Century City, Cape Town, South Africa
ICTD Researchers Fabrizio Santoro and Dominic Ogembo will lead a masterclass on how Digital Public Infrastructure can shape the future of equitable taxation in Africa, drawing on findings from the Centre’s DIGITAX Research Programme, at the ATRN Congress.

Virtual

1 April 2025 – 14:00

•

Timezone: Europe/London

Join ICTD Research Fellow, Fabrizio Santoro, online to discuss simplifying and digitising tax systems.

Virtual

11 March 2025 – 14:00

•

Timezone: Europe/London

Webinar sharing key insights from the forthcoming World Bank-ICTD publication on Tax Identification Numbers.

Virtual

4 December 2024 – 14:00

•

Timezone: Europe/London

Join us for this ICTD-World Bank webinar which will discuss the impact of digitalisation of tax administrations on revenue authorities and taxpayers in low income countries.

Virtual

19 November 2024 – 06:30

•

Timezone: Europe/London

ICTD Research Fellow Fabrizio Santoro will speak about these concerns in the context of taxation, drawing from the Centre’s DIGITAX Research Programme, at the International Conference on Public Finance in the Digital Era, hosted by ODI Global and The Collaborative

Virtual

27 June 2024 – 14:00

•

Timezone: Africa/Kigali

We are delighted to contribute to the 10th Annual Conference of the Economic Policy Research Network, Rwanda, which this year has been organised around the theme Boosting Economic Resilience to Economic Shocks. ICTD Research Director, Giulia Mascagni, has given welcome

Virtual

26 June 2024 – 11:00

•

Timezone: UTC

The global digital public infrastructure (DPI) agenda is substantially informed by experiences from the Global North and South Asia. Africa has its own vast array of contributions to add to the debate. In a historic move, under India’s G20 Presidency

Virtual

16 May 2024 – 09:00

•

Timezone: Africa/Dar_es_Salaam

Co-hosted by Tanzania Revenue Authority, the International Growth Centre (IGC), and REPOA, the inaugural International Conference on Tax for Growth aims to “bring together world-leading researchers and policymakers to discuss questions relating to enhancing domestic resource mobilisation and strengthening tax

In person

28 February 2024 – 00:00

•

Timezone: Africa/Accra

Accra, Ghana
The workshop’s primary purpose is to explore how mobile money taxes could be designed in an effective and equitable way based on discussion centred around research and real-life experiences

Virtual

6 February 2024 – 13:00

•

Timezone: Europe/London

At a time when many African countries are facing strong fiscal pressures, the rapidly growing digital financial services sector – in particular mobile money – is a natural source to which some have turned in search of tax revenue. But

In person

5 June 2023 – 09:00

•

Timezone: Africa/Dar_es_Salaam

Nairobi Serena Hotel, Nairobi, Kenya
The ICTD is hosting a research and policy conference in Nairobi on the future of global tax governance in partnership with the Kenya School of Revenue Administration, and in collaboration with the the Committee on Fiscal Studies at the University

Virtual

10 November 2022 – 13:00

•

Timezone: Europe/London

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIT8OXnAYmA&ab_channel=InternationalCentreforTaxandDevelopment DIGITAX is delighted to announce the second webinar in DIGITAX’s e-levy series ‘The devil in the detail: Examining Ghana’s new e-levy from a policy design perspective’. There has been much debate around the implications of the e-levy since it

Completed

Impact of Compulsory e-Payments on Compliance in Eswatini

Start date: 01/01/2022

Completed

Review of Tax Payment Technologies: Uses, Benefits, Drawbacks, and Future Options

Start date: 01/01/2022

Completed

Tax e-Services in Rwanda: Uptake, Impacts and Shifts after COVID-19

Start date: 01/01/2022

Completed

From Hand to Mouse Redux: Data, Technology and Tax Administration in Africa: A Review of Existing Evidence

Start date: 01/01/2022

Current

Comparison of Taxation of DFS Versus Traditional Financial Services in Nine African Countries

Start date: 01/01/2022

Completed

Digital Payment Tax Factsheets

Start date: 01/01/2022

Current

Evidence Review: digital financial services, digital ID systems and tax administration

Start date: 28/04/2021

Current

How do African tax administrations adopt new technology?

Start date: 28/04/2021

Current

Data, Technology and Tax Administration in Developing Countries: Review of Existing Evidence

Start date: 28/04/2021

Current

Taxing the Financial Sector in Uganda

Start date: 28/04/2021

Current

The Mobile Money Tax in Uganda: Study of the Policymaking Process

Start date: 28/04/2021

Current

The taxation of DFS in the broader context of taxing the financial and mobile payments sector: A Cross-country study

Start date: 28/04/2021
Njeri Okono
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Communications Consultant
Christopher Wales
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Associate Research Fellow
Moyo Arewa
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Programme Director, LoGRI
Marco Carreras
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Postdoctoral Fellow
Hannelore Niesten
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Associate Postdoctoral Fellow
Lucia Rossel
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Research Affiliate
Stephen Okiya
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Research Consultant