Rwanda Revenue Authority (RRA) will this week (22nd -24th of April) host the International Tax Dialogue on Small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs) at Serena Hotel in Kigali. 

The conference which is the first of its kind on the African continent will focus on improving the ways of taxing SMEs in developing countries.

Under the theme, "Taxing Micro and Small Businesses – From Confrontation to Cooperation,” the conference deliberations will focus on deepening a uniform way of taxing SMEs in the region.

"Rwanda is hosting the conference, as a platform for joint venture to strengthen SMEs compliance. The conference will be an opportunity for Rwanda to learn from other countries on how to tax SMEs at low cost,” Gerald Mukubu Nkusi, the Director for Taxpayer Services at RRA told Business Times in an interview on Thursday.

He also noted that the conference will lay down a foundation and possible opportunities of how all African countries can continue to share knowledge and experience in this area and maximize gains.

"This provides us a great opportunity to share experience on how SMEs sector is taxed within different African Countries and learn from some of the success stories. It will also give us a chance to explore the way forward in the taxation of the SMEs sector,” Nkusi said.

Organised in collaboration with International Tax Dialogue (ITD) – European Commission, IDB, the International Monitory Fund (IMF), OECD, the World Bank, the British Department for International Development (DFID) , the conference will be attended by Commissioners General of African tax administrations,  development agencies , academicians and business representatives.

At least 52 delegates from different revenue agencies on the Continent are expected to attend the conference.
The last ITD conference was held in Buenos Aires in October 2007.

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