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THE African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) yesterday officially launched its 2018 edition of the African Tax Outlook, the largest collaborative tax statistics initiative on the continent.

The flagship publication serves as a reliable source of information on taxation and, therefore, “constitutes a solid African and global benchmark for tax policy formulation and tax administration reforms across Africa”, said ATAF in statement. The 2018 African Tax Outlook (ATO) publication brings together valuable, practical and relevant descriptive and analytical work on tax issues for the period of 2010-2016 from 26 African countries.

“It is the first-ever attempt by African tax authorities to compare, in a consistent fashion, the ways in which African tax authorities raise revenue.

“It assesses and compares 26 countries against indicators in seven broad categories: total tax revenue, individual taxes, non-tax revenue, tax and customs administration structures and functions, service management, compliance management and human resource in tax administration,” said ATAF.

It said the indicators were crucial to African tax authorities as they implement reforms and policies to broaden the tax base, narrow tax gaps, simplify and improve fairness in tax systems, enhance overall voluntary compliance, and keep policy makers informed on tax matters.

The 2018 edition of the ATO reveals, among other information: variations in economic performance as measured by real gross domestic product, between participating countries.

According to the report, Rwanda recorded 8,6 percent as the highest growth rate 2016 1,4 percent average for sub-Saharan Africa in 2016. Of the 26 ATO countries 10 recorded or experienced negative real growth in revenue.

Uganda, Seychelles and Lesotho respectively observed an increase of 2,37 and 2,26 and 2,4 percentage points in their tax to GDP ratio from 2015.

Meanwhile, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Angola experienced declines of 3,44 and 3,18 and 2,18 percentage points respectively in their tax to GDP ratios.

ATAF has said the value added tax (VAT) remains the cash cow in most ATO countries, with the average VAT-to-total tax revenue ratio of 31 percent which is higher than the OECD average of 20 percent.

The personal income tax (PIT)-to-GDP ratios for ATO countries are still very low compared to those of the OECD countries, which ATAF attributed mainly to the low-income levels for these countries, as compared to the developed economies.

The regional tax body stressed the need to modernise services to taxpayers saying processing tax returns and taxpayer payment information were some of the most time-consuming activities for tax administrations.

By 2016, 88 percent of the ATO countries are said to have modernised their tax collection processes. The use of electronic systems to replace traditional means of return submissions and making payments are eliminating the mistakes associated with manual submissions.

ATAF is an organisation, which was established by African revenue authorities in 2009, in order to improve the performance of tax administrations in Africa.