Background: This article examines features of the tax systems of 19 African countries with material mining operations. Objectives: An interpretive approach is used to explore the implications of a country’s commitment to democracy (according to the Economist Intelligence Unit) and perceived levels of corruption (according to Transparency International) for the tax burden experienced in some of Africa’s mining industries. The scores are contrast with the strength of the jurisdictions’ democratic systems and levels of corruption. Method: Income tax rates, the number of taxes charged and the administrative challenges experienced by taxpayers are used to calculate a composite ‘tax burden score’ for each country. The scores are compared with the levels democracy and corruption reported by the Economist Intelligence Unit and Transparency International respectively. Results: Results suggest that democracies are just as capable of extracting value from taxpayers as authoritarian regimes where legal or electoral challenges to unfair tax policy are less likely. Authoritarian governments do not, however, always have the highest tax rates. Free from the need to invest in democratic systems and social welfare, taxes are levied at a lower rate than in more democratic countries. Taxpayers are, however, more likely to experience administrative challenges when applying the applicable tax laws than would be the case under democracy. The result is a trade-off between value extracted directly in the form of tax and compliance or other regulatory costs. Conclusion: These findings make an important contribution to the tax literature by providing a multi-jurisdictional analysis of tax practice in a seldom-studied context. From a practical perspective, the findings can also inform the tax planning, risk management and reporting practices of organisations with material mining investments in Africa.

中文翻译：

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非洲矿业税回顾：税收负担，民主制度的力量和腐败程度

背景：本文研究了19个非洲国家进行实质性采矿作业的税收制度的特征。目标：采用一种解释性方法来探讨一个国家对民主的承诺（根据《经济学人》智库）和腐败的感知水平（根据《透明国际》）对非洲某些采矿业所承受的税收负担的​​影响。得分与各司法管辖区的民主制度和腐败水平形成鲜明对比。方法：使用所得税率，收取的税款数量和纳税人所经历的行政挑战来计算每个国家的综合“税负得分”。将分数与经济学人智库和透明国际分别报告的民主和腐败水平进行比较。结果：结果表明，民主政体与专制政权一样，能够从纳税人那里获取价值，因为在专制政权下，对不公平税收政策的法律或选举挑战较少。但是，威权政府并不总是具有最高的税率。无需对民主制度和社会福利进行投资，征税的税率比民主国家要低。但是，与民主制度下的情况相比，纳税人在适用适用税法时更有可能面临行政挑战。结果是在直接以税收形式提取的价值与合规性或其他监管成本之间进行了权衡。结论：这些发现通过在很少研究的背景下提供税收实践的多辖区分析，为税收文献做出了重要贡献。从实际的角度来看，这些发现还可以为在非洲进行实质性矿业投资的组织的税收筹划，风险管理和报告实践提供依据。