Paying Taxes in Mozambique
SPEED supports the Government of Mozambique’s efforts to improve its ranking in the Doing Business (DB) report including “paying taxes[1]“, one of DB’s indicators. SPEED concluded the Paying Taxes assessment in 2013, in response to CTA demand.
The assessment looked at the tax system in Mozambique with a focus on direct and indirect national taxes and taxes collected at the municipal level. The evidence shows that the number of taxes that firms have to pay annually is not the biggest problem, but the high rates and the required cumbersome procedures for tax payment poses a huge burden to companies paying taxes. This confirms that in most cases frequent filing need not be burdensome if procedures are simple.
The Draft Assessment recommendations are associated with the need to reduce the costs associated to the process of payment of the taxes, through a) increasing the tax collection points; b) expanding the electronic system to pay taxes, and c) strengthening capacity of Revenue Authority.
SPEED’s simulated assessment on Quick-win reforms that would enable Mozambique to raise its DB rankings indicates that streamlining tax processes could move the paying taxes indicator up more than 30 points.
September 17, 2013: The document “2013 SPEED Report 004: Paying Taxes in Mozambique PT” was added to this page.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
[1] The “paying taxes index” is based on three equal components: the number of payments required per year, the time required to file taxes, and the total tax rate.