Tax talks: Seminars with substance
The Tax for Growth team invites you to join them for six monthly online webinars running from March to August. The webinars feature discussions on topics of cutting-edge tax research with academics and integral policy stakeholders from revenue authorities. These webinars are aimed at tax research and policy. The webinars comprise a presentation, discussion and Q&A.
The Tax for Growth (T4G) team at the International Growth Centre (IGC), invites you to attend this webinar series on Taxation starting on the 3rd of March and running monthly until August 2025. Please make sure to check the date and time of each webinar as timings may change.
This webinar series delves into six diverse topics such as corporate tax havens, tax bargaining and digitalisation of tax systems, we invite all those working in and researching tax to join this webinar series. The webinars are moderated by a member of the T4G team and features academics and practitioners working in the field of tax.
Each webinar features a presentation, discussion and Q&A with the audience. All materials such as the recordings and slides will be available after the end of each webinar on the IGC website. Please note that there is no certificate of completion for this course. This webinar series is an excellent opportunity to delve into research on taxation and development with experts currently working in this field.
Bargaining over taxes
Can we make taxes in LICs more equitable and why might this be hard? This webinar discusses the findings of the paper ‘Bargaining Over Taxes’ by Daniel Overbeck and Eliya Lungu, with discussant Chenai Mukumba -Executive Director of Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA).
The paper focuses on a 2017-2018 change in the turnover tax regime in Zambia, which introduced increasing tax bands in the aim to make the tax more equitable. Traditional economic theory would see such a scheme result in taxpayers ’bunching’ just below the higher tax threshold. However, this study did not find such results. The webinar explores how Zambian firms differed from traditional economic models.
Taxation can be used as a lever to address equity concerns. Join our webinar to learn more.
Simplifying and digitalising tax systems
Revenue authorities around the world are digitalising tax systems to simplify compliance and improve efficiency. However, tax data remains vastly underutilised. Many digital tools require data as an input to operate, and they can also be a source of generating data. Well utilised data can make the process of complying with taxes simpler for the taxpayer and revenue authorities.
This webinar discuses how data-driven strategies should be central to revenue collection, enhancing tax enforcement, detecting non-compliance, and informing policy.
Self-sufficient nations - The challenges and opportunities of domestic resource mobilisation (new date)
How do Lower and Middle-Income Countries (LICs and MICs) fund services required for economic growth in a global context where aid is less reliable? For example, in Uganda, until recently, aid inflows made up 6-8% of GDP. While finding new methods of generating revenue is no small feat, improving the efficiency of the tax system is more important than ever to maintain countries' fiscal independence.
This webinar explores what tools can improve domestic resource mobilisation and what other factors policymakers and researchers should consider. For this webinar, we’ll explore what tools can improve domestic resource mobilisation and what other factors policymakers and researchers should consider.
Corporate tax havens and their impact on development
Saugata Mittra
Policy Economist (Tax for Growth), International Growth Centre
Ludvig Wier
Director, Denmark Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Mercy Mbithi
Head of Cross-Border Taxation Technical Committee, African Tax Administration Forum
Thomas Lassourd
Lead, Tax and Extractives, International Institute for Sustainable Development By shifting profits to low-tax jurisdictions, multinational corporations are estimated to cost governments over $200 billion annually. In low and middle-income countries, profit shifting is often harder to enforce, meaning funds that are sorely needed for infrastructure, healthcare, and economic growth are siphoned off. What can be done about it?
Join our webinar to explore how profit shifting happens, how it can disproportionately affect government revenues in developing countries, and possible solutions to this problem.
From Recognition to Reciprocity: How to boost tax morale
Laura Fras
Policy Economist, Tax for Growth Initiative, International Growth Centre
Wayne Sandholtz
Assistant Professor, Nova School of Business and Economics
Manuel de Araújo
Mayor of Quelimane
Mazhar Waseem
Professor of Economics, University of Manchester
Hina Shaikh
Senior Country Economist, Pakistan, International Growth CentreGovernments around the world try to encourage citizens to pay taxes. Most notable through enforcement, but also by attempting to foster a sense of fairness, recognition, and reciprocity. Can rewarding taxpayers or showing them how their money is used lead to better compliance? This webinar will present new evidence from Pakistan and Mozambique on how different strategies—like recognising high taxpayers or linking taxes to visible public services—can influence taxpayer behaviour. Join us to explore what motivates citizens to pay and what this means for tax policy design.
Uncovering dirty profits: the global allocation of extractives
Saugata Mittra
Policy Economist (Tax for Growth), International Growth Centre
Ninon Moreau-Kastler
Post-Doctoral Researcher, EU Tax Observatory and Paris School of Economics
Ekpen Omonbude
Senior Policy Advisor, International Institute for Sustainable Development
Pierre Bachas
Economist, The World Bank and EU Tax Observatory Profits from oil, gas, and mining industries (“extractives”) often form a major part of the tax base for developing countries – composing 20% of total revenue in Zambia in 2021, for example. But where does this profit get reported and where is tax paid? Recent influential work shows that 36% of global profits are shifted to low-tax jurisdictions, depriving low- and middle-income countries of much-needed revenue to invest in schools, hospitals, and roads. How did we get here?
Join us as we explore why profit shifting matters, how it occurs in practice, and how it impacts the development of these nations.
You can see the slides for the presentation here.