2023-12-13 10:18:42
The reform of the Tunisian tax system occupies an increasingly important place in public debates. The pressure on public finances, linked over the last ten years to a context of political, economic and social tensions, reinforces the aspiration for the implementation of a structural reform which would transform the tax system, pillar of development, into a coherent, simple, effective, and socially equitable model.
Tunisia launched an ambitious tax reform project in 2013 in order to break with a failed model and change the widespread culture of tax evasion and fraud. A project which aimed to establish a fair and equitable tax system where the tax burden will be properly distributed among taxpayers. A public-private participatory project where representatives of the two sectors exchanged views and succeeded in issuing 266 recommendations which should have guided governments in their choice of tax measures to be proposed from 2014. A tax roadmap which did not been followed to the letter by all those who have governed.
Unfinished reform
Ten years later, tax reform is still at the top of social and economic issues. An unfinished reform associated with inflation in tax matters deserves urgent attention from all stakeholders.
The tax system has become a real obstacle to the growth of the economy and the establishment of social justice, mainly due to the complex procedures and the high tax pressure on certain social groups who have difficulty supporting it, with the feeling of inequality between taxpayers.
This situation has worsened in recent years, because the economic situation has encountered great difficulties and successive provisional governments have not carried out fundamental reforms capable of creating the appropriate climate to increase growth, develop investment and create jobs.
According to Mohamed Salah Ayari, expert in legal and tax advice and member of the National Tax Council, the tax reform was carried out, in several stages, through the promulgation of several tax codes. “The main objective of implementing these reforms was to reduce tax pressure, make tax texts more transparent, encourage tax creditors to fulfill their tax obligations, strengthen tax control processes and to achieve a rapprochement between the tax administration and tax payers. The goal was also to establish a fair and equitable tax system while ensuring the tax revenues necessary for the development of state budget resources.
However, these reforms have not followed the pace desired to make them evolve and bring them into line with the economic and social changes that the country is experiencing. Among the main areas of proposed reform, that relating to the revision of the flat-rate system which remains a subject of controversy and which must be initiated urgently.
The accountant, Anis Wahabi, did not fail to remind us during the meetings of the 37e edition of the Business Days the obstacles which “obstruct the path towards a simplified and equitable taxation”, noting that the initial objective of the tax reform was “to increase yield and promote tax fairness”. However, the accountant specifies that “the implementation of certain reforms, in particular that of the Single Tax Code planned since 2014, has not yet been achieved. The same goes for the reforms which involve charges for the State, they have not been as effective.
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