Tax Coordination, Tax Competition, and Revenue Mobilization in the West African Economic and Monetary Union

Download or read book Tax Coordination, Tax Competition, and Revenue Mobilization in the West African Economic and Monetary Union written by Mario Mansour and published by International Monetary Fund. This book was released on 2013-07-09 with total page 41 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We review the current state of the West African Economic and Monetary Union’s tax coordination framework, against the main objectives of the WAEMU Treaty of 1994: reduce distortions to intra-community trade, and mobilize domestic tax revenue. The process of tax coordination in WAEMU is one of the most advanced in the world—de jure at least—, but remains in many areas ineffective de facto. Nevertheless, the framework has, to some extent, succeeded in converging tax systems, particularly statutory tax rates, and may have contributed to improving revenue mobilisation. Important lessons can be drawn from the WAEMU experience, particularly in terms of whether coordination should take the form of harmonization through a top-down approach, or a softer approach of sharing best practice and limiting certain types of tax competition.