Assessment of the Effectiveness of Tax Administration Reform on Tanzania’s Tax System Productivity

Author: Amos James Ibrahim

ISSN: 2709-8575
Affiliations: Lecturer at the Institute of Tax Administration Tanzania
Source: African Multidisciplinary Tax Journal, Volume 5, Issue 1 (2025), p. 194–207
https://doi.org/10.47348/AMTJ/V5/i1a9

Abstract

This study assesses the effectiveness of tax administration reform on Tanzania’s tax revenue productivity by evaluating how the reforms have influenced the buoyancy of individual taxes using yearly time series data for 1996 to 2017. This period is associated with the introduction of massive reform in the Tanzanian tax administration. The study compares its results with those of Osoro, who evaluated the Tanzanian tax system productivity for 1960 to 1990. To ensure the comparability of results, this study used a similar methodological approach to that used by Osoro. The main objective of this study is to investigate if the reform that took place managed to generate enough tax. The results show that both the tax system and individual taxes are buoyant for the period under review. Our results suggest that the administrative tax reforms that took place have had a significant impact on revenue generation in Tanzania. Thus, we recommend that the government should continue conducting tax administrative reform to cope with the ever-changing business environment.