ATI Follow-up Technical Meeting on Tax Expenditures (West Africa)

18-20 September 2023 | Accra, Ghana | By Invitation
Fiscal, Workshops | Tags: Tax Expenditures

The first ATI Regional Workshop on Tax Expenditures with a focus on West Africa was held in Lagos, Nigeria, on 27-28 July 2022. Representatives from the ministries of finance, revenue authorities, and parliaments from 12 West African countries participated. The ATI Follow-up Technical Meeting held in September 2023 in Accra, Ghana, provided an opportunity to discuss the tools and methods required for tackling the more technical aspects of tax expenditure estimation, reporting, and evaluation. This meeting served as a platform for the exchange of potential strategies to deepen collaboration in the field and track progress.

The meeting was organized by the Addis Tax Initiative (ATI) jointly with the Council on Economic Policies (CEP) and the German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS), in collaboration with the West African Tax Administration Forum (WATAF), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), as well as the local host, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) of Ghana.

The Report is available here.

  • Watch the highlights of the ATI Follow-up Technical Meeting on Tax Expenditures held in September 2023 in Accra, Ghana.

     

     

  • The report of the Technical Meeting is available in English and French:

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  • Monday, 18 September2023
    Data Requirements, Benchmarking & Estimation of Tax Expenditures
    08.30-09.00Registration
    09.00-09.30Welcome Address & Introduction
    09.30-10.30Session 1 – TE Developments in Partner Countries
    10.30-11.00Coffee Break
    11.00-12.15Session 2 – Data Requirements for TE Estimation and Evaluation
    12.15-13.45Lunch Break
    13.45-15.00Session 3a – Establishing a Benchmark
    Session 3b – Redesigning Tax Return Forms to Better Capture TE Data
    15.00-15.30Coffee Break
    15.30-17.15Session 4 – Estimating Revenue Forgone (I)
    17.30-20.30Reception
    Tuesday, 19 September 2023
    Estimation, Reporting & Evaluation of Tax Expenditures (TEs)
    08.30-08.45Welcome to Day 2 & Setting the Stage
    08.45-10.30Session 5a – Estimating Revenue Forgone (II)
    Session 5b – TEs Pocket Guide for Parliamentarians
    10.30-11.00Coffee Break
    11.00-12.15Session 6 – TE Reporting
    12.15-13.45Lunch Break
    13.45-15.00Session 7 – Ex-ante Assessment of TEs
    15.00-15.30Coffee Break
    15.30-17.15Session 8 –Ex-Post Evaluation of TEs (I)
    Wednesday, 20 September 2023
    Evaluation and Governance of Tax Expenditures (TEs)
    08.30-08.45Welcome to Day 3 & Setting the Stage
    08.45-10.30Session 9a – Ex-Post Evaluation of TEs (II)
    Session 9b – TE Evaluations for Parliamentarians
    10.30-11.00Coffee Break
    11.00-12.00Session10 – Governing TE Regimes
    12.00-12.30Closing Remarks

  • Governments all over the world are struggling to mobilize domestic revenue and attain the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The same governments, however, typically provide generous tax breaks, exemptions, or incentives to companies and private households – often without even knowing the real costs of those mechanisms in terms of revenue forgone. Furthermore, the potential benefits that such tax expenditures (TEs) should generate are usually not assessed.

    Against this backdrop, ATI, CEP, and IDOS launched in 2022 a series of regional workshops on TEs for ATI member countries, other interested jurisdictions, regional organisations, and research partners. The workshops build on ATI Commitment 3 and the Global Tax Expenditures Database (GTED), which was launched by CEP and IDOS in June 2021. With its worldwide coverage, the GTED helps to increase transparency on tax expenditures and sheds light on their critical role in tax systems around the globe. Each of the workshops will be followed-up by a technical meeting providing deep-dives into the relevant topics from a hands-on, practical perspective.

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