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Middle East and Central Asia > Mauritania, Islamic Republic of

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Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Islamic Republic of Mauritania: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. Middle East and Central Asia Dept.
The paper examines domestic revenue mobilization in Mauritania and proposes strategies to enhance tax revenue collection to address fiscal sustainability challenges and finance critical investment projects. Despite recent progress, Mauritania’s tax-to-GDP ratio remains below that of its peers, constrained by a complex legal framework, numerous derogatory tax regimes, and inefficiencies in revenue administration. The analysis indicates that Mauritania could increase tax revenues by up to 3.4% of GDP in the medium term, thus reducing its tax gap by one-third. Key policy recommendations include reducing VAT exemptions, replacing corporate tax exemptions with cost-based incentives, reforming the personal income tax system, broadening the consumption tax base, simplifying tax procedures, managing tax arrears more effectively, and strengthening tax compliance.
Keywords:
tax Potential; tax Effort in Mauritania; VAT revenue; revenue component; rates in Mauritania; Value-added tax; Corporate income tax; Tax administration core functions; Consumption taxes; Global
Cover High-Level Summary Technical Assistance Reports
High-Level Summary Technical Assistance Report: Mauritania: Tax Policy Diagnostic
Grégoire Rota-Graziosi
,
Thomas Benninger
,
Jean-François Brun
,
Emilie Caldeira
, and
Fayçal Sawadogo
The IMF’s Fiscal Affairs Department has been working with Mauritania on capacity building in tax policy. Mauritania has recently created a tax policy unit and adopted a new General Tax Code in 2019 with a corporate income tax and a semi-dual approach to personal income taxation. However, there is significant scope to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of income taxes, including due to the proliferation of wasteful tax exemptions. The fast urbanization also calls for a review of recurrent property taxation. The formalization of property rights requires a temporary suspension of the excessive registration fees. Consumption taxation can also be improved by broadening the tax base, for example, by abolishing regressive value-added tax exemptions or by imposing excise taxes on imported used vehicles. Finally, several recommendations aim to support the reform of the Mining Code, such as introducing some progressivity, prohibiting the negotiation of any tax parameters, and strengthening the principle of ring-fencing.
Keywords:
direct taxation; indirect taxation; CIT; VAT; property tax; mining taxation; tax credits; tax policy diagnostic; consumption taxation; IMF's Fiscal Affairs Department; regressive value-added tax exemption; mining tax regime; Income and capital gains taxes; Corporate income tax; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Personal Income Taxes in the Middle East and North Africa: Prospects and Possibilities
Mario Mansour
and
Eric M. Zolt
Personal income taxes (PITs) play little or no role in the Middle East and North Africa, often yielding less than 2 percent of GDP in revenue—with the exception of few North African countries. This paper examines how PITs have evolved in recent decades, and what they might look like in the next 20 years. Top marginal tax rates on labor and business income of individuals have declined substantially, a trend that mirrors reductions in advanced and developing economies. Taxation of passive capital income has changed very little, and the revenue intake from this source remains low throughout the region (less than 1 percent of GDP on average and concentrated in oil-importing non-fragile states). Social security contributions (SSC) have increased in importance in nearly all MENA countries, and some countries have introduced additional payroll taxes. The combination of reduced marginal tax rates, light taxation of income from capital and business activities, and increase of SSC, have resulted in income tax systems that create disincentives to work and incentives for informality, and contribute little to government revenue and income redistribution. Given differences in economic and political structures, demographics, and starting points, the path to PIT/SSC reforms will vary across the region. Countries with relatively mature PIT/SSC systems, where revenue performance has improved in the past two decades, will increasingly need to balance the revenue and equity objectives against effciency objectives (in particular labor market incentives and infromality). Countries with no PITs will have to weigh whether a consumption tax/SSC system that mimic a flat tax on labor income is sufficient to diversify revenue away from oil and whether to adopt PITs to address rising income and wealth inequality. Finally, fragile states, who face more political volatility and weaker fiscal institutions, will have to focus on simplicity of tax design and collection to be able to raise revenue from PITs.
Keywords:
Personal income taxes; social security contributions; payroll taxes; fragile and conflict states; Middle East and North Africa; Gulf-Cooperation Council; SSC reform; SSC system; revenue performance; PIT objective; PIT revenue; Personal income tax; Income tax systems; Income; Income and capital gains taxes; Corporate income tax; North Africa; Middle East; East Africa; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
The Optimal Turnover Threshold and Tax Rate for SMEs
Feng Wei
and
Jean-François Wen
Presumptive income taxes in the form of a tax on turnover for SMEs are pervasive as a way to reduce the costs of compliance and administration. We analyze a model where entrepreneurs allocate labor to the formal and informal sectors. Formal sector income is subjected either to a corporate income tax or a tax on turnover, depending on whether their turnover exceeds a threshold. We characterize the private sector equilibrium for any given configuration of tax policy parameters (corporate income tax rate, turnover tax rate, and threshold). Given private behavior, social welfare is optimized. We interpret the first-order conditions for welfare maximization to identify the key margins and then simulate a calibrated version of the model.
Keywords:
WP; tax rate; income tax; production function; Turnover Tax; Threshold; Corporate Income Tax; Tax Compliance; Informality; tax regimes firms choose; turnover tax rate; middle cost firm; profit-difference curve; presumptive regime; Sales tax; Presumptive tax; Compliance costs; Sub-Saharan Africa; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Mali: Technical Assistance Report-Mining Taxation: Modeling of Five Mining Operations
International Monetary Fund. Fiscal Affairs Dept.
This paper discusses Malian mining taxation. Mali’s industrial mining sector is predominantly gold mining, with six industrial mines currently active. Most of the mines are old, but some have substantial reserves; extensions are planned for the Syama, Morila, Kalama, Tabakoto-Segela, and Loulo-Gounkoto mines. The Fiscal Analysis for Resource Industries model was completed for five new projects with recent feasibility studies. The government revenue contributed by the five new projects is on the order of US$1.7 billion (constant dollars) over the next 10 years. The application of the 1999 or 2012 Mining Code increases the government’s share of income in comparison with the 1991 code.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; government; Malian government; tax data; internal rate of return; term; mining Code; production forecast; information from the Ministry of Finance; gold production; tax information; ad valorem tax; area taxation; Mining sector; Corporate income tax; Average effective tax rate; Gold
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Mali: Rapport d'assistance technique — fiscalité minière : modélisation de cinq exploitations minières
International Monetary Fund. Fiscal Affairs Dept.
La plupart des mines sont anciennes mais leurs réserves en minerai demeure importantes pour certaines d’entre-elles. Ainsi des extensions sont envisagées pour les mines de Syama, Morila, Kalama, Tabakoto-Segela et Loulo-Gounkoto. Une mine, Robex, devrait entrer en production prochainement et une étude de faisabilité a été déposée pour la mine de Fekola. Les aménagements de la mine de Kodiéran, détenue par Wassoul’or, pourraient reprendre au cours de l’année 2015, suite au versement de plus de 7 milliards de FCFA aux différents créanciers. Ainsi, la tendance baissière de la production d’or au Mali pourrait s’inverser durablement dans les prochaines années si le prix du marché mondial demeurerait à son niveau actuel.
Keywords:
ISCR; CR; government; Malian government; tax data; internal rate of return; term