AFRICA – The 2020 Tax Transparency report has revealed that African countries made great strides in tackling tax evasion and money laundry, and improved on commitments and capacity to achieve tax transparency and exchange information on illicit fund flows in 2019.
According to the 2020 tax transparency report, Illicit financial flows in Africa are estimated at between $50 billion and $80 billion annually.
The tax transparency report also claims that about 44% of Africa’s financial wealth is thought be held offshore, which corresponds to tax revenue losses of €17 billion.
Significant gains have however made in the fight to reverse the loss of revenues associated with tax evasion and money laundering, the report notes.
“We have five African countries identifying nearly $12 million in additional revenue, and eight African countries secured $189 million of additional revenue between 2014 and 2019,” the 2020 tax report noted.
According to the tax report, participating countries showed significant advances on the Africa Initiaves’ two core pillars: raising political awareness and commitment and developing capacities in tax transparency and exchange of information.
The tax report however underscored the need for African countries to engage further in revenue mobilization, a concern sharpened by the backdrop of the ongoing global novel coronavirus pandemic.
“AfDB firmly believes that collaborations with both regional and international partners are key to moving forward the agenda on tax transparency which has significant impact on domestic resource mobilization,” said Abdoulaye Coulibaly, AfDB’s Director for Governance and Public Financial Management.
Head of the Global Forum Secretariat Zayda Manatta on her part, praised African countries’ growing proactive role in tax transparency and noted the benefits of existing exchange-sharing tools.
Tax Transparency in Africa 2020 is produced by the Global Forum for Transparency and Exchange of Information for Tax Purposes, the African Union and African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), in close partnership with the African Development Bank.
The report provides comparable tax transparency statistics to aid decision makers to address illicit fund flows.
The 2020 report covers 32 Global Forum member countries, and three non-members: Angola, Guinea Bissau and Malawi.
The African Development Bank, an observer to the Global Forum since 2014, also participates in the Africa Initiative.
The AfDB promotes African tax transparency through support to institutions and non-state actors in its regional member countries and by strengthening international co-operation to eliminate IFFs.
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