Technical assistance (TA) lies at the heart of ATAF’s mandate to create more efficient and effective African tax systems. ATAF’s technical assistance is geared towards providing;

• tailored support that meets the specific needs and policy objectives of each Member country,
• finding homegrown solutions through peer-to-peer learning and
• growing long-term sustainable African tax expertise by using African experts delivering African solutions for African challenges.

ATAF’s unique TA approach rests on a broad capacity-building portfolio which combines ‘downstream’ and ‘upstream’ aspects.

‘Downstream’ work, or in-country TA, is delivered through bilateral TA programmes and engages directly with members to build capacity and put in place technical and legal structures for the effective operation of member tax systems.

‘Upstream’ refers to how the experiences learned in ‘downstream’ country work inform the development of ATAF tools, products and standards. These experiences provide clear insights into challenges on the ground, and the issues which members need to deal with. When further country requests are responded to, previously encountered issues and solutions help members work with ATAF to engineer their own solutions, develop guidance and standard setting mechanisms and ultimately feed these into other African and international fora.

WHAT IS THE INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK FOR ALL TA BASED ON?

• A country-focused model, which potentially includes international (transfer pricing/exchange of information) and/or domestic issues (VAT/Compliance), policy and administrative solutions, and multiple forms of delivery, involving ATAF, the recipient country and other delivery partners.
• A delivery and assessment partnership based on a formal agreement between ATAF and the recipient country with joint ownership and responsibility for scoping programmes, implementation, milestones, assessment, programme completion dates, evaluation of outcomes and impact analysis.
• A cross-divisional approach within ATAF, linking the work of the TA and Research Divisions to ensure that the TA work is based on a coherent ATAF approach to the country concerned, utilising all institutional knowledge and providing opportunities to develop areas of research which will benefit members.

WHICH COUNTRIES ARE ELIGIBLE FOR TA?

All ATAF members ‘in good standing’ are eligible for TA. In addition, supply-driven TA with other countries may be considered if the TA Panel considers that TA delivery will benefit the membership commensurate with available resources.

HIGHLIGHTS AND IMPACT OF ATAF’S TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME

The assistance has helped ATAF members assess over $3 billion additional tax and collect over $1.2 billion additional tax from transfer pricing audits over the past six years.

• Demand for TA growing rapidly; 11 ATAF Members requested TA and in 2021 this increased by over 50% to 18 ATAF members.
  • 87 technical assistance missions delivered in 17 countries in 2021, addressing various tax administration, tax policy and tax audit issues.
  • TA has helped 18 countries establish transfer pricing units.
  • Exchange of Information support was provided to 7 countries and assistance in establishing EOI units in 5 countries
  • VAT technical assistance programmes were established in 2021 in 3 countries: Angola, Ghana and Eswatini.