Introduction

Welcome to the Southern African Development Communtiy (SADC) Tax Database and Information Portal. Before proceeding it is important to have a brief background to the development of this database and information portal and the rationale for its development.

SADC in its endevours to achieve regional economic integration has developed a Protocol on Finance and Investment that Member States have acceded to. The Protocol serves to give legal and practical effect to the commitments that SADC Member States made through the SADC Treaty and the Regional Indicative Strategic Plan (RISDP).

The Treaty, being the primary document for all SADC goals, has laid out a number of areas in which Member States are to develop and enhance regional development and integration on the basis of balance, equity and mutual benefit and in the areas of trade, industry, finance, investment and mining.

The RISDP on the other hand stems from the objective of regional integration that the treaty seeks to achieve. As a result the RISDP seeks, among others, to remove barriers that prevent economic relationships between countries in the Region and to harmonise the regulatory and legal environments across Member States.

Annexure 3 of the Protocol focuses on Tax Coordination in the region with its overriding objectives being to facilitate trade, improving the SADC investment climate and to protect and enhance revenues in the region by strengthning tax administration through appropriate policy guidelines and considerations. To achieve this the Annexure stipulates that a tax database should be developed to provide details of, among other things:

• All direct taxes, indirect taxes including appropriate rates, exemptions and allowances;
• Tax incentives offered; and
• Appropriate revenue statistics.

This database seeks to provide visitors with as much tax information as possible to guide their investment and other decisions. It also provides a starting point for further research into tax data in the region. We hope that the information provided herein will meet your needs and the requirements outlined in the Treaty, the RISDP and the Protocol. While we encourage direct interaction with the various Member States' revenue authorities, the SADC Secretariat also welcomes any comments, criticism or recommendations that may assist in making this database and information portal more relevant and easier to use.