COURSE DESCRIPTION
A recurrent property tax is levied in almost all countries in the world. Although the property tax is the mainstay of local taxes in many developed and industrialized countries, it is only beginning to gain a foothold in Africa. Part of the broader discourse on Domestic Resource Mobilisation (DRM) is to focus on property and wealth taxation as part of a state’s revenue generating ability. Hence, it becomes important to understand and examine property and wealth taxation as part of broadening the existing tax base of a state, ensuring its sustainability and as part of considering whether to impose additional or alternative taxes or to remove the tax exemptions from a country’s property and wealth tax base structure. Consequently, under the category of broadening the tax base, this topic considers the effectiveness of wealth and property taxes as components of DRM-pivotal to achieving the AU Agenda 2063 and a country’s vision 2030. The objective of this topic is to inquire into the effectiveness of these two types of taxes for the African economy, especially in light of the need for injecting much needed finance into the economy of almost all states following COVID19 disruptions. It examines the historical use of wealth and property taxes to consider the case for and against their use in raising revenue and reducing inequality. Discussions will focus on the status, challenges and prospects of property tax in Africa noting its unique land tenure system, informal sector, agriculture-based economy and its rural based population. Implementation challenges of these two types of taxes will also be addressed, and recommendations identified on the way forward in deeming whether these taxes are efficient for DRM in Africa.
DESIRED CLASS COMPOSITION:
This is an online module, as such class composition can vary between 10-50 participants from a mixed legal, advocacy, research, academic or political background having knowledge on either taxation, economics, human rights, law, development, governance, politics, policy making and advocacy. The topic singles out for training legislators and policy makers, civil society organisations, media reporters, researchers, working professionals and graduate students who seek to strengthen their knowledge and capacity on property and wealth taxation as part of DRM strategies and framework so as to identify a plan of action in tackling long term financial challenges of many developing states.
OBJECTIVES OF THE SESSION:
- To introduce the concept of property and wealth
- To understand the importance of property tax in African countries
- To examine the potential of the property and wealth taxes to generate sustainable revenue for African countries
- To identify what property tax bases are currently used, which are performing best and why so as to identify best practices
- To discuss the imposition of the wealth tax
- To inquire into the wealth and property taxes implementation challenges and how to reduce such challenges
COURSE OUTLINE:
- An introduction to wealth and property taxes – a guaranteed source of revenue?
- The revenue generating ability of wealth and property taxes in Africa and their potential
- for long term sustainable financing
- Wealth and property taxes in the context of the African land tenure system
- Challenges in implementing the wealth and property taxes (institutions, technology, laws,
- tax administration, digitalization-itax)
- Linking wealth and property taxes to public services
- Fiscal decentralization and innovative solutions to wealth and property tax capture
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES:
- David Shakow and Shuldiner, Reed. A Comprehensive Wealth Tax, (2000) Faculty Scholarship at Penn Law. 1264.
- Franzsen, R. C. D. 2003. Property Taxation Within the Southern African Development Community (SADC): Current Status and Future Prospects of Land Value Taxation, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland. Working Paper. Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
- Franzsen, R. C. D. 2014. Recurrent Property Taxes in Africa: Policy Issues and Administrative Challenges.
- Wilson Prichard. Linking Property Tax Revenue and Public Services, ICTD, 2017.
- Munatswi Nengeze. How Local Authorities Can Exploit the Potential for Effective Property Taxes: A Case Study of Harare. ICTD, 2019
- Liza Rose Cirola and James Christopher. Property Tax in African Secondary Cities: Insight from the Cases of Kisumu (Kenya) and M’Bour (Senegal), ICTD, 2019
ESTIMATED SESSION DURATION:
The duration for this topic is estimated at 3 hours and 20 minutes. The topic will be taught online and requires student engagement in advance. Students must spend at least 120 minutes going through the training manual and then listen to the pre-recorded lecture of 20 minutes. This will be followed by a live Q&A of 60 minutes.
Course Features
- Lectures 1
- Quizzes 0
- Duration 35 hours
- Skill level All levels
- Students 26
- Certificate No
- Assessments Yes