{Rwanda has been ranked third in Africa behind Mauritius (13th) and Seychelles (19th) in the ease of paying taxes.}
The ranking was done by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and World Bank Paying Taxes 2014: The Global picture report.
The report which compares tax regimes across 189 economies globally ranking them according to the relative ease of paying taxes has ranked Rwanda 22nd overall.
The report noted that Rwanda made paying taxes easier and lowered the tax burden in 2012/13, by introducing and enhancing electronic systems.
According to the report, at 36.1 Africa has the highest average number of payments of any region, but though it has a higher than average number of taxes, it is the lack of electronic filing in the continent which contributes most to the difficulty of paying taxes.
Rwanda is one of the three countries which introduced e-filing for corporate income tax, value added tax and labour contributions.
A taxpayer can now declare and pay taxes online through the e-filing and e-payment system by simply downloading a form from RRA website, fill in and send it to RRA by email. Several banks now receive electronic tax payments on behalf of RRA.
Already one of the most efficient economies for paying tax in the region, Rwanda reduced its time to comply by a further 21 hours due to the extension of its electronic filing systems. Since 2004, Rwanda has reduced its time to comply by nearly a third from 168 hours to 113 hours.
Also according to World Bank Doing Business in the East African Community (EAC) report for 2013, Rwanda has the highest tax compliance rate in the region—meaning fewer Rwandans and their businesses are likely to evade paying taxes.
Out of 185 countries surveyed globally, Rwanda is ranked number 25 in tax compliance. This means that not only is the country having the best tax compliance rate in the region, but also among the top 25 countries in the world where citizens see paying taxes as a civic duty.
Rwanda Eye
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