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.

Key Resources

Opinion and Analysis

How digital public infrastructure could transform tax administration in Africa

Fabrizio Santoro, Lucia Rossel

News

ICTD launches DFS TaxMap: A comprehensive visualisation tool on taxation of digital financial services in Africa

Publication

Taxing Mobile Money in Africa: Risk and Reward

Martin Hearson, Philip Mader, Mary Abounabhan, Marco Carreras, Awa Diouf, Adrienne Lees, Hannelore Niesten, Fabrizio Santoro, Christopher Wales

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

Opinion and Analysis

17 November 2022

Identity issues: Four challenges for digital IDs in Africa’s tax systems

Fabrizio Santoro, Moyo Arewa, Celeste Scarpini

From streamlining primary healthcare to amplifying agricultural outcomes, digital IDs matter. Here are some of the reasons why……

Opinion and Analysis

24 October 2022

How should Africa’s digital payments be taxed?

Philip Mader

Africa’s governments need tax revenue to fund everything from education and social welfare to paying international debts. No wonder governments…

Media coverage

21 October 2022

Adrienne Lees quoted in The Economist for DIGITAX research

Adrienne Lees

Researcher Adrienne Lees was quoted in The Economist on the 13th of October 2022 for her work on the Ghana…

Opinion and Analysis

14 October 2022

Tanzania to waive electronic money transfer levy, except on mobile money?

Hannelore Niesten

From 1st October 2022 Tanzania eliminated the levies on certain electronic money transfers, but not on mobile money….

Opinion and Analysis

13 October 2022

New data on the e-levy in Ghana: Unpopular tax on mobile money transfers is hitting the poor hardest

Vanessa van den Boogaard, Max Gallien, Michael Rogan, Nana Akua Anyidoho

In Ghana, the “e-levy” has been linked to the current administration’s “Ghana Beyond Aid” strategy for reducing aid dependence….

Opinion and Analysis

8 September 2022

Mobile-money taxation in East Africa: Harmonisation or laissez-faire?

Hannelore Niesten

Regional tax harmonisation is controversial, with compelling arguments for and against. Is it desirable? Or beneficial? And if so, to…

Opinion and Analysis

4 August 2022

Ghana’s new e-levy: The sour, sweet and switches so far

Fabrizio Santoro, Mary Abounabhan, Awa Diouf

Introduced in May 2022, Ghana’s e-levy is a 1.5 per cent tax on the transfer amount of electronic transactions. The…

Opinion and Analysis

3 August 2022

To tax or not to tax mobile money? The impact on digital financial services in Africa and beyond

Adrienne Lees, Philip Mader

“Designing better tax policies for DFS requires understanding the factors that enable using DFS, and its potential impacts” writes Adrienne…

Opinion and Analysis

24 June 2022

How will the E-levy impact the informal sector in Ghana?

Philipa Birago Akuoko, Rhiannon McCluskey

The Electronic Transaction Levy (E-levy), a 1.5% tax on all electronic transactions, went into effect on the 1st of May…

Webinar “Ghana’s E-Levy: two months in, what do we know?”

Webinar

24 June 2022 – 15:00

•

Timezone: Europe/London

This is the first in a series of webinars on Taxes and Digital Financial Services (DFS) organised by the ICTD.

Mobile money taxation in Africa: Causes and consequences (Webinar)

Virtual

14 July 2020 – 13:00

•

Timezone: Europe/London

In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, cash-strapped governments across Africa will be looking for ways to fill revenue gaps. Having long faced challenges in taxing large multinational corporations and significant informal economic activities, they may be tempted to raise