The African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) this year celebrates its first decade as an international organization, serving 38 member countries and championing the interests of African countries in international taxation.

In the 10 years since its inception in November 2009, at a conference in Kampala, Uganda, ATAF has made significant progress and boasts of achievements, which have cemented its position as the leading organisation on tax matters.

To mark its 10th anniversary, ATAF will celebrate the achievements of our first decade, reflect on and learn from our history and map out our future path at a number of regional events and finally at an International Conference on Tax in Africa, which will take place in Kampala, Uganda from November 19-22, 2019.

This biennial conference, organised by ATAF and hosted this year by the Uganda Revenue Authority, will consider the theme: Innovation – Digitalisation and Harnessing Technology to Improve Tax Systems.

This theme will cover innovative solutions to the policy challenges that countries face in dealing with the taxation of the digital economy, an issue that will inform the global tax debate over the next decade.

It will also look at innovation through the use of technology in Africa to strengthen tax systems and develop solutions that will broaden the tax base, deal with high net worth individuals and improve assessment and collection to increase tax efficiency and effectiveness.

ATAF’s regional celebrations will coincide with the hosting of key events which are scheduled to take place as follows:

North African region – 4 and 5 July 2019: The inaugural meeting of a Master Class for the heads of African Tax Administrations will be held in Rabat, Morocco. Heads of Tax Administrations from all 54 African states have been invited to attend the meeting.

Southern African region – 30 and 31 July 2019: High Level Policy Dialogue meeting of policy makers and tax officials to be held in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. This meeting aims to promote an understanding of the nexus between tax policy and tax administration and strengthen the relationship between policymakers and tax administrators.

West African region – 2-6 September 2019: The 5th ATAF African Tax Research Network Congress to be held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

East African region – 19-22 November 2019: This region will host the main celebration at the International Conference on Tax in Africa in Kampala, Uganda, as ATAF returns to its birthplace to celebrate its 10th anniversary.

ATAF key achievements are; 

ATAF has provided Technical Assistance through 20 country programmes (12 on cross border taxation and eight on exchange of information). The country programmes have led to:

The  reviewing  of  business  structures  and procedures;

·         The training of 500 auditors;

·         Implementation of Automatic Exchange  of Information (EoI) and EOI units and trans- fer pricing units in over 15 countries;

·         The revision of transfer pricing legisla-  tion, new interest deductibility legislation, and new permanent establishment rules de- signed to reduce tax avoidance and evasion;

·    The enactment of new transfer pricing  laws and regulations in more than 12 countries (including Zambia, Uganda, Senegal, Botswana, Kenya, and Nigeria) based on the ATAF Suggested Approach to TP Legislation.

·         Increases in tax collected due to these interventions now totals USD194 million. In addition, USD1.1 billion has been raised in assessments as at the end of 2018.

ATAF has improved the capacity of African tax administrations (over 15 000 policy makers, officials and parliamentarians have been trained) on tax audits and tax treaties; compliance risk management and fraud detection; tax and development; revenue forecasting and analysis to mention but a few topics.

ATAF has played an active role in the global tax agenda over the last decade. To date, the organisation has participated in 72 regional, continental and global fora to promote African perspectives on tax issues and represent the views and interests of its members. ATAF is a key player in the OECD Inclusive Framework and the UN Committee of Experts. The organisation has significant regional and international visibility and was recognised by the African Union in 2018 as the leading organisation on tax in Africa.

ATAF works collaboratively with  regional and global platforms such as the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, the High-Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows, The Global Forum on Transparency and Exchange of Information for tax purposes, Trust Africa and the Tax Justice Network. These collaborations are aimed at countering abusive tax practices by multinational enterprises and combatting of illicit financial flows from the continent.

ATAF established an African Tax Research Network (ATRN) in 2015, a platform for African inspired dialogue, research and collaboration. The network has held a congress aimed at promoting an African-based thought leadership on tax matters  annually  since  2015,  drawing  a told of nearly 350 participants. The 2019 ATRN  congress is scheduled to take place  in Burkina Faso in September.

Through the ATRN, ATAF.

• Provides support to junior and middle career researchers with the aim of increasing the research capacity in Africa
• Promotes the development of home-  grown solutions to African tax challenges and enhances debate and cooperation amongst tax officials, academics, policy makers, tax practitioners and civil society.

ATAF launched its African Tax Outlook (ATO) in 2016 featuring data from 15 African countries. Since then the number of countries participating in the ATO has grown each year, to 34 countries for the 2019 and 37 countries for 2020 editions. The ATO assesses and compares data of an African countries against indicators in four broad categories: tax bases, tax structure, revenue performance, and tax administration. The annual publication is now regarded as the leading reference point on continental tax data providing valuable, practical and relevant descriptive and analytical work on tax issues.

ATAF established an Executive Masters Programme in Taxation (EMT) in 2014 to strengthen the capabilities of tax officials, tax policy makers, and tax practitioners from across the African continent. To date, 87 participants (both English and French speaking) from 20 countries have graduated and have designed, implemented  and  steered  reform   processes in the fields of public finance, tax legislation, applied tax policy, and tax administration in their countries.

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Energy and metal commodity prices are expected to continue to fall in 2020 following sharp declines in 2019 on a weaker outlook for global growth and consequent softer demand, the World Bank said in its October Commodity Markets Outlook.

“Slowing demand for commodities presents a challenge for exporters and an opportunity for importers,” said Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, World Bank Group Vice President for Equitable Growth, Finance & Institutions. “As both of them switch from using one commodity to another due to price fluctuation and technological advance, it will be important that these resources be produced and consumed in an environmentally sustainable way.”

Crude oil prices are projected to average US$60 per barrel in 2019 and weaken to US$58 per barrel in 2020. These forecasts are US$6 per barrel and US$7 per barrel lower than anticipated in the April Commodity Markets Outlook. In line with the slowdown in global growth, oil consumption is now expected to rise at a much slower pace than earlier forecasts and increase only modestly next year. A sharper-than expected economic downturn poses the greatest risk to the oil price forecast. More broadly, energy prices, which also include natural gas and coal, are expected to average almost 15 percent lower in 2019 than in 2018, and to continue to decline in 2020.

Metal prices are also projected to fall 5 percent in 2019 and continue to slide next year as slowing global demand weighs heavily on the market. Precious metals, which have risen sharply this year, are anticipated to make further gains in 2020 in response to heightened global uncertainty and accommodative monetary policies. Agriculture prices are anticipated to decline this year but stabilize in 2020.

A resolution of trade tensions could push up the prices of some agricultural commodities, such as soybeans and corn, while lower energy prices could lower fuel costs and fertilizer prices, reducing prices of energy-intensive crops such as oilseeds.

A special section in the report looks at what drives consumers to substitute one commodity for another, such as natural gas for coal, or paper instead of plastic. These substitutions are driven by technological innovation and changes in commodity prices. This phenomenon highlights the risks to the long-term growth prospects of countries that rely heavily on a narrow group of commodity exports.

“Depending on export revenues from a small set of commodities makes commodity-exporting developing economies vulnerable because demand surges and higher prices could induce innovation and facilitate substitution among commodities,” said Ayhan Kose, Director of the World Bank’s Prospects Group.

Another special section looks at the impact of the September 14 attacks on oil production facilities in Saudi Arabia. The market response was short-lived by historical standards because of the swift restoration of production, increasingly diversified sources of oil supplies, including shale oil, and weakening demand. However, it was a reminder that the global oil market remains dependent on several critical infrastructure and transport bottlenecks that may be vulnerable to disruption.

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The global forecast for oil production in 2019 has been repeatedly revised downward over the last year and a half amid weakening demand for oil. Growth in demand  is now around 1%, or 1 million barrels per day – the weakest growth rate since 2012, according to the October 2019 Commodity Markets Outlook.

Oil prices are projected to average $60/bbl in 2019 and are forecast to weaken to $58/bbl in 2020, $7/bbl lower than the previous forecast. The downward revision reflects the weaker outlook for global growth and therefore for oil demand. Oil consumption growth is expected to increase slightly next year at a level usually associated with global downturns. If economic growth deteriorates further, oil demand could be substantially weaker, says the report.

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