Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Hill, John R.

Titel

Sales Taxation in Francophone Africa

Ist Teil von

• The Journal of developing areas, 1977-01, Vol.11 (2), p.165-184

Ort / Verlag

Macomb: Western Illinois University

Erscheinungsjahr

1977

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Since the introduction of the value-added tax in Western Europe, a number of countries have adopted sales taxes based on the value-added principle. The purpose here is to compare sales tax systems of 15 French-speaking countries located in Africa & Madagascar, & to analyze the manner in which the value-added principle has been adapted to suit the characteristics of their developing economies. On the basis of the national tax statutes, revenue data provided by the national authorities, & interviews with the tax authorities of most of the 15 countries, the rate structures coverage, & exemptions of these systems are compared, including the treatment of services, imports, & the activities of small businesses. Buoyancy coefficients are presented as an indication of revenue performance of these sales taxes in relation to the growth of gross domestic product. Appraised are the effects of the main sales tax variants currently levied in francophone Africa on growth, price stability, resource allocation, & equity. Although patterned after the French sales tax system, the main sales tax variants now used in francophone African countries seem reasonably suited to the environment in which they operate & the demands which are made upon them. While a number of distinctions between the different variants are demonstrated, all these taxes are fundamentally confined to manufacturers & to importers, so that their similarity outweighs their differences with respect to most policy objectives. These sales tax systems also provide a generally sound foundation for the development & extension of the taxation of domestic transactions which is likely to be a feature of the future development of their tax structures. 3 Tables. AA.