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The Business of Taxing Businesses in East Africa

September 25, 2024
Washington, DC and Online
Taxing Business in East Africa

Stay tuned! Event recordings will be available soon.

The event will serve as a knowledge-sharing space for participants to engage in a comprehensive and practical discussion about the promises and pitfalls of business taxation in Low- and Middle-Income Countries, particularly in East Africa.

In line with the Global Tax Program’s efforts to support domestic resource mobilization, this event will involve presentations from officials from Kenya, Tanzania, Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Rwanda about the results of innovative, multi-year collaborations with the World Bank and TaxDev (delivered by the Institute for Fiscal Studies and ODI). There will be two panel discussions, one where speakers reflect on the challenges in taxing small and medium-sized businesses, while the other will focus on opportunities to increase corporate income taxation. Participants will have ample time to engage with revenue authority officials during the event and over lunch.

This session is a side event from the 6th World Bank/IFS/ODI Public Finance Conference, and part of the 2024 Tax Data Analytics Week. Visit the week’s website for the full agenda and details on other events.

Wednesday, September 25
The Business of Taxing Businesses in East Africa

9:00-9:30 Registration & Breakfast  

9:30-9:40

Opening
Ceren Ozer (Global Tax Program Manager, World Bank)

9:40-10:30

PANEL 1 | Taxation of SMEs: Case Studies from Three Countries
Chair: Florence Kondylis (World Bank)

Kenya: Trade-offs in the Design of Simplified Tax Regimes
Presenter: Dr. Alex Oguso, Manager of Research & Tax Modeling Unit, Kenya Revenue Authority. (watch video

Rwanda: Benefits and Barriers to Electronic Invoicing for small firms
Presenter: Mr. Denis Mukama, Acting Commissioner for Strategy & Risk Analysis, Rwanda Revenue Authority. (watch video

Tanzania: Lying to the Taxman, Experimental Evidence from a Novel Experiment
Presenter: Mr. Revocatus Washington Paul, Economist, World Bank. (watch video

10:30-11:30

PANEL 2 | Corporate Income Taxation: Embracing Opportunities and Challenges
Chair: Anne Brockmeyer (World Bank)

Somalia: Revenue Mobilization and Social Contract in a Nascent Federal State
Presenter: H.E. Abdiqafar Elmi Hange, Deputy Minister of Finance. (watch video

Ethiopia: Challenges and opportunities for business taxation in Ethiopia
Presenter: Mulay Weldu Asegehegn, Director, Tax Policy Directorate, Ministry of Finance. (watch video

Uganda: CIT in Uganda: balancing the investment-revenue trade-off
Presenter: Isaac Arinaitwe, Principal Economist, Tax Policy Department, Ministry of Finance, Planning and Economic Development of Uganda. (watch video

11:30-11:40

Closing Remarks
Andrew Dabalen (Chief Economist for Africa, World Bank) (watch video
 
11:40-12:30Lunch