Dear Colleague,

We are pleased to share with you the 7th issue of our eNewsletter. The ICTD update aims to widen debate on tax and development by sharing insights, current global tax issues as well as new research on tax and development.
Due to its growing demand, we decided to change the frequency of the update from quarterly to bi-monthly.

Please read on and as always, we are very happy to receive your feedback.

Thank you and best regards,
ICTD Team

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Commentary
The 3rd International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD) is just a month away and we are pleased to share with you an important blog post written by a group of tax and development experts (led by ICTD CEO Prof. Mick Moore), on why we should reject setting quantitative tax targets for revenue raising in developing countries as part of the post-2015 agenda. 

As the blog explains, setting tax to GDP percentage targets will not improve relationships with taxpayers, will encourage countries to play accounting and reporting games more than effectively raising revenue for sustainable development, and may actually lead to increasing poverty. Read the blog post here and please feel free to share your feedback.

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Latest Publications
The following are our latest publications:
1. ICTD Working Paper 32: The tax Policy Outlook for Developing Countries: Reflections on International Formulary Apportionment - by Michael C. Durst.
2. ICTD Working Paper 33: Understanding Low-Level State Capacity: Property Tax Collection in Pakistan - by Mujtaba Piracha and Mick Moore.
3. ICTD Working Paper 34: Unitary taxation: Tax Base and the Role of Accounting - by Prem Sikka and Richard Murphy.
4. Top Income Shares, Business Profits and Effective Tax rates in Contemporary Chile - by Tasha Fairfield and Michel Joratt.
5. The Added Value of Value Added Tax: People are more willing to pay tax - by Odd Helge Fjeldstad and Thor Olav Iversen.

Please visit the Publications page on our website for more.
           
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Upcoming Events
- 4th International Workshop on Domestic Revenue Mobilisation (with a focus on the politics of fighting tax avoidance and evasion) - German Development Institute, Bonn. Date: 23-24 June 2015.
- The International Institute of Public Finance (IPPF) 2015 Congress, to be held at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Date: 20-23 August 2015.
- 1st Annual Congress of African Tax Research Network (ATRN), to be held in Cape Town, South Africa. Date: 2-4 September 2015.
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Opportunities:
- The British Library for Development Studies (BLDS) (your local development library) has just updated and re-launched the Document Delivery service. This service is provided for free to those based in  over 140 middle and low income countries. Find more information here.

- Call for Papers - 10th Annual WCO Picard Conference to be held in Baku, Azerbaijan Date: 8-10 September 2015. Deadline - 1 June2015.

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ICTD News:

ICTD Supports New Project On Conflict And Taxation In Congo
The study aims to provide insight into the burden imposed by different types of taxes by state and non-state actors, and on the prevalence of informal taxation and of revenue leakages within the formal system. More broadly, the study seeks to use an understanding of local tax dynamics as a lens through which to understand the broader process of state building in areas that are conflict affected and in which the state is comparatively weak.

ATAF-ICTD Cooperate in Research Capacity Building
ICTD and ATAF are collaborating to build research capacity amongst researchers and individuals working on tax. The main capacity building activities that we will conduct are: Tax and Development short course; Research methods for tax research and Dissemination and writing workshops.

UNCTAD uses ICTD Government Revenue Dataset in its new study
The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) published a major new study on corporate tax, which specifically aims to add value to the ongoing debate on MNE tax avoidance in developing countries. The study used ICTD Government Revenue Dataset to provide a baseline a baseline for the revenue contribution of MNEs in developing countries.

Boosting Revenue Collections from High Net worth Individuals in Uganda 
The ICTD is currently funding a research project on compliance management of individuals with high income and wealth - a project which aims to design a tax administration process that brings HNWIs into the tax bracket, as this is an area that continues to be a challenge in Africa.

Joint ATAF – ICTD research project on tax compliance in Rwanda
ATAF and the ICTD are currently working on a research project on tax compliance in Rwanda, in collaboration with the Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA). 

Governments have different preferences and views on how to improve compliance, from aggressive enforcement to voluntary compliance. However, both revenue authorities and taxpayers are likely to benefit from a system where tax payments are made voluntarily based on a relation of trust, rather than coercively at a higher individual and social cost. 

Capacity Building for International Taxation in African Revenue Authorities 
This is an ongoing research project, which aims to explore the effectiveness of international capacity building support related to combatting international tax evasion. Donors have become increasingly involved in capacity building for international taxation, particularly with regards to transfer pricing and the extractive sector. However, it is not clear how beneficial focusing on these sources of revenue losses is compared to other domestic revenue mobilisation challenges, because it is extremely difficult to build sustained capacity in international taxation.

What do we know about the mineral resource rent sharing in Africa? 
African governments that lack the capacity to mine resources have to attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). However, since resources are not renewable, countries need to capture a ‘fair’ share of mineral resource rent to promote their development. The sharing of mineral resource rent between governments and investors is often criticised for being unfavourable to African governments. But what do we really know about the mineral resource rent sharing in Africa?

This research project seeks to review theoretical and empirical studies on rent sharing in developing countries, and to propose guidance for creating tools (database, rent sharing model, indicators, etc.).
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