Business-Friendly Taxation: Maurice Ninth Globally And First In Africa

Maurice is one of the best performing countries in the world in terms of tax administration as the private sector.Ninth on the world and No.1 in Africa, Mauritius performance was hailed by professionals as well as representatives of the World Bank. The tax relief proposed by Xavier Luc Duval at the presentation of Budget 2012 promised a honorable performance for next year.

Paying Taxes 2012 report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and the World Bank (WB) was released this Monday, November 14. It measures the efficiency of tax administration in terms of the contractor, taking into account tax rates, the time required by companies to meet the requirements of the tax administration and the number of payments to be carried out.

"Paying Taxes" is one of the criteria used by the World Bank in its annual "Doing Business" which measures the ease of doing business in the economies of 183 countries. Ninth in the world in tax administration, Maurice has nothing to envy the major economies. It is found in the same group as Singapore, which now serves as a model of development, as requested by the Prime Minister.

In the first place, we find the Maldives which, like the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman, sixth, seventh and eighth, respectively, have huge reserves of natural resources while taxes affecting business are virtually nonexistent.

On Africa, first place in Mauritius is not surprising since the local tax serves as an example to many African countries. The Mauritius Revenue Authority expertise is highly sought in the process of tax reform in Africa. If Maurice immediately preceding the Cameroon in the world rankings, the third African country, the Seychelles are found in 26th place.

It must be said that the abolition of Capital Gains Tax announced by Xavier Duval at the presentation of financial forecasts of the state on November 4, should further facilitate the task of tax experts and bring down the Total Tax Rate. This tax seen as a disincentive to investment in Mauritius is expected to maintain its good performance in the next ranking.