Enhancing Taxpayer Registration with Inter-Institutional Data Sharing – Evidence from Uganda

Abstract

Governments in low-income countries struggle to collect and use population information adequately. For tax administrations, all of which require comprehensive data about the tax base, the lack of accurate information is a crucial challenge. This challenge often appears intractable for African tax administrations, which operate in a context of high informality. Cross-agency data-sharing agreements and inter-institutional system integration, primarily related to national identification (ID) schemes, seem to offer a solution. These can potentially improve registration functions, facilitate identification of evaders, increase efficiency, and reduce taxpayers’ compliance costs. Summary of ICTD African Tax Administration Paper 35.