Tax for Development: Can the IMF and G20 Help Mobilize More Domestic Resources? Michael Keen, IMF CSO Policy Forum, WB/IMF Spring Meetings April 14,2011

What we do : About 100 missions annually, plus 7 regional centers

Has been improvement since early 1990s: …reflecting stronger VAT and CIT, reduced trade revenues—trends since early 1980s

From the Board Paper Taxation is about more than revenue: efficiency, fairness, ‘state building’ Fairness matters both in itself and for sustainability of tax regime – Assessing it can be hard: Who really pays the corporate tax? – And needs to be considered jointly with spending side—could do better – Taxing elites important and hard

State building: Yes, but what’s different? ‘Informality’ not the best way to think of the problem—focus on non-compliance Beware ‘fads’—this is a hard slog Institutions matter: Transparency and tax policy units Political will not enough unless sustained

Paper doesn’t cover resource taxation, but: 6

G20 request Seeks reflections on: – Overcoming capacity constraints – Knowledge platform and South-South cooperation – Take stock of IO’s actions – Measures to track administrative progress – Transfer pricing Responses will draw on IMF conferences in Nairobi and (this weekend) DC; comments invited online.