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Session Overview
Session
G04: Digital Money and Taxation
Time:
Friday, 22/Aug/2025:
2:00pm - 4:00pm

Session Chair: Jasmin Vietz, ifo Institute
Discussant 1: Hjalte Fejerskov Boas, University of Copenhagen
Discussant 2: Fabrizio Santoro, Institute of Development Studies
Discussant 3: Jasmin Vietz, ifo Institute
Discussant 4: Faycal Sawadogo, International Monetary Fund

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Presentations

Taxing Mobile Money: Theory and Evidence

Michael Barczay1, Shafik Hebous2, Fayçal Sawadogo2, Jean-Francois Wen2

1European University Institute, Florence, Italy; 2International Monetary Fund, Washington DC, United States of America

We develop a stylized model of cash management to analyze the effects of mobile money taxation. The model predicts that such a tax incentivizes users to switch to alternative payment systems, disproportionately affecting individuals with limited banking access. we empirically test these predictions using two different types of data. First, we use cross-country financial access surveys, leveraging the staggered introduction of mobile money taxes in Sub-Saharan Africa. We find that the tax reduces the number of mobile money users and the frequency and value of transactions. Second, we use mobile money transaction-level data from Cameroon and Mali. We find that mobile money usage declines following the mobile money tax along the extensive and intensive margins. More financially included individuals respond more strongly to the introduction of the tax, suggesting that rural and unbanked users pay a higher disproportionate share of the tax.

Barczay-Taxing Mobile Money-423.pdf


Enforcing Taxes on Cryptocurrencies

Hjalte Fejerskov Boas1, Mona Barake2

1University of Copenhagen; 2Skatteforsk, NMBU

Cryptocurrencies pose substantial challenges to tax enforcement due to their anonymous and decentralized properties, undermining conventional regulatory practices. We study the impact of an ambitious new enforcement initiative aimed at addressing these challenges: domestic third-party reporting of crypto income. We estimate tax compliance and behavioral responses to this new policy by combining unique Danish microdata from domestic crypto platforms, administrative tax records, and cross-border bank transfers. Despite the introduction of domestic third-party reporting, over 90% of crypto investors do not declare crypto income. Moreover, we identify a significant and persistent evasion response to the policy as investors shift trading activity from domestic platforms, subject to third-party reporting, to foreign platforms outside regulatory reach. Our findings underscore the limits of domestic enforcement strategies in addressing tax evasion for decentralized, borderless assets like cryptocurrencies, highlighting the need for international coordination.

Boas-Enforcing Taxes on Cryptocurrencies-176.pdf


Cashless Tax Systems: Voluntary vs. Mandated Digital Payments in Eswatini

Fabrizio Santoro1, Phindile Masuku2, Tanele Magongo2

1Institute of Development Studies, United Kingdom; 2Eswatini Revenue Service

The digitalization of tax payments is a key policy focus in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in Africa. This study examines its impact on compliance, leveraging Eswatini’s 2021 zero-cash-handling mandate. Using administrative tax data, we assess (i) the effects of voluntary digital payment adoption and (ii) the mandate’s impact. A staggered difference-in-differences (DiD) approach shows that voluntary adoption reduces late payments by 19 percentage points (25%) and improves payment accuracy by 5.7 percentage points (22%)—rising to 9 percentage points (30%) for strictly digital methods—while having minimal effect on total tax paid. A treatment-intensity DiD strategy finds that the mandate eliminated cash payments but had modest compliance effects, increasing tax payments by 3.5% for individuals and 1.6% for corporations, with no improvement in accuracy. These findings highlight differences between voluntary and mandated adoption, emphasizing the need for policies that account for taxpayer heterogeneity to enhance compliance.

Santoro-Cashless Tax Systems-261.pdf


Tax Salience: Experimental Evidence from Tanzania

Jasmin Vietz1, Odd-Helge Fjeldstad2,3, Sunniva Nygard Ingholm2, Lucas Katera4, Emil Løstegard2, Ingrid Hoem Sjursen2, Vincent Somville2,5

1University of Hohenheim, Germany; 2Chr. Michelsen Institute; 3African Tax Insitute, University of Pretoria; 4REPOA; 5Norwegian School of Economics

In sub-Saharan Africa, the adoption of mobile money has increased substantially during the last decade and is an important driver of financial inclusion in the region. At the same time, governments have implemented tax on mobile money transfers that may constrain financial inclusion and provide an incentive for cash transfers. The introduction of the taxes has led to heated public debate and reductions in the mobile money tax rates in several countries, making the tax highly salient to many taxpayers. This paper examines the effect of tax salience on the use of mobile money. Using a lab experiment among market traders in Dar es Salaam, we find that increasing the salience of the tax significantly reduces the use of mobile money.

Vietz-Tax Salience-283.pdf


 
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