DfiD Report
This study of total tax burden and revenue leakage in the DRC was launched in April 2015 to estimate the total tax burden on households and businesses in the DRC, to understand the character of this tax burden and, to the extent possible, to produce rough estimates of the share of tax payments reaching the government treasury. To this end, the core of the study was a survey of approximately 2400 households across 300 sampling units in Kinshasa, North Kivu and Kasai Orientale, and an additional 700 businesses in Kinshasa and North Kivu. These surveys sought to capture all formal and informal tax payments, to both state and non-state actors, while adopting relatively broad definitions of both concepts—incorporating not only pure taxes, but also a range of user fees, licenses, fines, charges and contributions. The results offer a holistic understanding of the extractive burden facing households and businesses, and of potential revenue losses to government
