{"id":186071,"date":"2026-02-10T08:48:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T13:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/10\/taxing-africas-informal-economies-technologys-promise-and-pitfalls\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T09:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T14:30:12","slug":"taxing-africas-informal-economies-technologys-promise-and-pitfalls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/10\/taxing-africas-informal-economies-technologys-promise-and-pitfalls\/","title":{"rendered":"Taxing Africa\u2019s informal economies: technology\u2019s promise and pitfalls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/taxing-africas-informal-economies-technologys-promise-and-pitfalls-275324\">Taxing Africa\u2019s informal economies: technology\u2019s promise and pitfalls<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/theconversation.com\/taxing-africas-informal-economies-technologys-promise-and-pitfalls-275324\">https:\/\/theconversation.com\/taxing-africas-informal-economies-technologys-promise-and-pitfalls-275324<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-02-10 08:48:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"theconversation.com\">theconversation.com<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A decline in foreign aid and cheaper loans has led African countries to increasingly rely on taxation for development funding.<\/li>\n<li>African economies&#8217; significant informal sector is an obstacle for taxes as governments struggle to track economic activity or enforce compliance in this sector.<\/li>\n<li>To raise revenue, governments must either boost taxes from the formal sector or extend taxation to the informal sector, which brings unique challenges.<\/li>\n<li>Technology can enhance identification, detection, and collection capacities needed for effective taxation; however, it is not a complete solution if poorly implemented.<\/li>\n<li>Tools like digital ID systems and electronic transaction data can improve tax compliance, as seen in Rwanda&#8217;s voluntary VAT compliance using electronic billing.<\/li>\n<li>Digital financial services, such as mobile money, are being used as tax bases, highlighting the need for governments to balance revenue needs and financial inclusion.<\/li>\n<li>Although technology aids digitization, its effectiveness is tied to robust digital infrastructure and tax officials\u2019 use of new tools, free from misuse.<\/li>\n<li>The core challenge in taxation is achieving the balance of maximizing revenue, fairness, and simplicity without unfairly burdening the poorest.<\/li>\n<li>Successful tax systems evolve to keep pace with digital transformation and require modern policy, skills, and infrastructure to effectively apply tax rules on informal activities.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taxing Africa\u2019s informal economies: technology\u2019s promise and pitfalls https:\/\/theconversation.com\/taxing-africas-informal-economies-technologys-promise-and-pitfalls-275324 Publish Date: 2026-02-10 08:48:00 Source Domain:&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":186072,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.theconversation.com\/files\/717029\/original\/file-20260209-62-xjtgg.jpg?ixlib=rb-4.1.0&rect=0%2C100%2C3500%2C1750&q=45&auto=format&w=1356&h=668&fit=crop","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-186071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186071"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=186071"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186071\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186073,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/186071\/revisions\/186073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=186071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=186071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testing.news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=186071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}