MA Tax Administration
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Description
Well-designed economic policies and economic management are the preconditions for the effective economic performance in any country. The success of any government is largely measured in terms of the public services that it provides for its people. Paucity of funds has always been the major obstacle for the provision of public goods and the economic growth of a country. No government can plan its economic development completely relying on foreign aid and other external sources of finance. Good economic governance, which is the prerequisite for the economic development can be nourished only when the country is in a position to generate sufficient revenue for its various operations.
Mobilizing adequate resources from taxation, the key source of revenue for the government, and making it available for designing and implementing developmental programs in the country requires an impeccable revenue management system. Central to the revenue system in any country is taxation which provides the country with the lion’s share of its revenue. Uplift of the millions and millions of the people who have been affected by illiteracy, ill health, unemployment and other evils is a Herculean Task that requires an efficient management of the tax system of the country. The major diseases that make the tax system of a country crippled are corruption, tax evasion, and lack of transparency. Lack of trained manpower in the area of taxation and the absence of a well designed tax management system facilitates for the diseases to spread rapidly and to make irreproachable damages in the economic and the social systems of the country. The tax system thus would become incapable of raising adequate revenue for the government thereby making the economic development of the country crawling.
Ever since its establishment, the present government of Ethiopia has been exerting relentless efforts for alleviating poverty, attaining economic development, and providing good governance. It has very well realized the importance of revamping the Taxation System of the country to make the system free from the clutches of corruption, tax evasion, lack of transparency and other diseases. The government has recognized the tax reforms as a panacea for accelerating the economic development and thus included tax reforms as one of the major components in the Economic Reforms program of the country. The tax reform program of Ethiopia has envisaged building up an honest system of assessment and collection of tax and customs revenue. Initially, the tax reforms focused on the rationalization of tax policies. Equal attention has also been paid to build up the organizational framework for an efficient administration of tax in the country.
Tax system has been redesigned in such a way that it would reforms in Ethiopia has paved the way for substantially increase the revenue of the government and would minimize the tax evasion. Introduction of VAT is one of the major turning points in the tax system of the country. Beyond doubts, the tax replacing the outdated Tax Law that was in use for many years, energizing the tax administration that had been constrained with corruption and inefficiency, and enhancing the revenue generation capacity of the government. A sagacious Tax Management is pivotal to good economic governance. Though the Government of Ethiopia has gone a long way in reforming the tax system of the country, it hasn’t been able to fully reap the fruits of the reform, mainly due to lack of trained personnel in the area of tax administration. The tax system can be remolded only with the assistance of committed and trained civil servants. Thus, building capacity in the Tax administration has become crucial. No educational institution in Ethiopia is offering any graduate or undergraduate program in Taxation.
As the country is facing acute shortage in the Tax policy formulation and implementation areas, a Master level program is essential to meet the current needs of the government. In general, the rational for revision of the curriculum is to fit the education standard to the market demand based on feed back from employers and enrolled students. On top of that additional courses were incorporated and existing courses were restated based on the need for development of Knowledge, skills and attitudes of the learners
Prerequisites & Requirements
To be admitted to the program candidates should satisfy the following requirements:
- successful completion of an undergraduate program in Accounting, Economics, Management, tax and customs administration, public finance management and closely related fields,
- pass the entrance examination conducted by the University ,
- be recommended by the employer with official letter of testimonial
Exit Level Outcomes
- After the successful completion of the Masters program in Tax Administration, the graduates will be able to:
- Develop inputs for the tax structure of the country and the administrative system of tax and modernize the tax system through tax reforms, in collaboration with other concerned authorities.
- Analyze the tax rules, procedures and policies to iprove the tax policy and formulation.
- Conduct research on tax related issues and present the research results.
- Ensure that the tax practices such as tax assessment, tax accounting, and tax auditing are carried out ethically and in accordance with tax rules and procedures through the tax intelligence. ivestigation and risk management systems in such a way that it would minimize the tax fraud, and tax evasion.
- Employ the latest developments in information technology in making the tax practices more efficient and in linking the tax system.
- Apply international tax practices in tax administration.
- Design tool to manage all international tax issues emerging from the cross border transactions and investments.