Harmful tax competition in the East African community: the case of Rwanda with reference to EU and OECD approaches

Habimana, P. (2022)

Doctoral Thesis

The dissertation studies harmful tax competition in the East African Community (EAC). With a focus on Rwanda, it mainly refers to the EU and OECD standards. The objective of the study was to investigate Rwanda’s tax competition practices, in order to determine whether Rwanda is within the parameters of internationally accepted practices. The main orientation was not to draw a new distinction between acceptable versus unacceptable tax practices. Rather, it was to apply the criteria already developed and accepted at the international level to the particular case of Rwanda. The main materials used are: the EAC Treaty, the draft EAC Code of Conduct against harmful tax competition, the 1997 EU Code of Conduct on business taxation, the 1998 OECD Report on harmful tax competition, the COCG assessment reports, the OECD Progress reports, the Rwandan income tax law of 2018 and the investment law of 2021. This dissertation shows the possibility of applying EU and OECD standards by non- OECD and EU countries, particularly developing countries, to create tax systems that are free of harmful tax competition. However, it also shows that OECD and EU standards are not sufficient to eradicate all harmful tax practices, both in developed and developing countries.

• Harmful tax competition
• East African Community
• Rwanda
• European Union
• Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
• Developing countries
• Developed countries

• All authors: Habimana, P.
• Supervisor: Vording, H.; Douma, S.C.W.
• Committee: Burgers, I.J.J.; Cuyvers, A.; Mosquera Valderama, I.J.; Ntezilyayo, F.; Vleggeert, J.; Weber, D.M.
• Qualification: Doctor (dr.)
• Awarding Institution: Institute of Tax Law and Economics, Faculty of Law, Leiden University
• Date: 2022-01-13