Tax Relations in Contexts of Fragility: A Case Study of Somalia
This paper examines fiscal relations in contexts of fragility. It focuses on the tax relationship between the post-transitional Somaligovernment and advanced businesses in the telecommunications sector, which emerged during the period of state collapse. Thepaper poses two specific questions. It asks why such dominant economic players would pay taxes to a state that, per standard taxtheory, had limited authority, legitimacy and capacity to deliver ‘reciprocal returns’ or collective goods and services. Second, fora sector that had emerged in the context of statelessness, it interrogates whether some level of state capacity had become ‘pivotalfor its business’. In doing so, the paper assesses the impact of fiscal relations on broader state-building dynamics.
https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.70074
