Local Government

Property taxation is widely regarded as the most viable source of sustainable financing for local government and will likely spark accountability due to the potential for closely linking revenue collection and service provision.

RDF_Property Tax_Concept Note, January 2013

Download Sierra Leone Property Tax Sensitization Song (Windows Media format)

Local governments in low-income countries often struggle to raise capital to provide public goods and services. RDF has developed a Revenue Mobilization Programme (REMOP) which assists local councils to efficiently administer and manage property tax and business licenses.

Strengthening IT Systems for Property Tax Reform, Brief 11, The African Property Tax Initiative (APTI) 

See article in Journal of Good Governance Africa Issue 36 March-April 2016 p. 36 

This program instructs and demonstrates the 6 steps illustrated below on a learn-by-doing basis. The dedicated RDF software supports the entire process, registration of properties, automated mass valuation, billing, payments, appeal, publicity and compliance strategies. The software automatically calculates the valuation and tax due, produces notices and correspondence to simplify the process for valuation staff, ensuring accurate calculations and a transparent process. Following the collection of taxes, all revenues are recorded in the system, allowing for accountable monitoring of progress. The system is lightweight and durable, functioning offline and suitable in remote locations with no internet connectivity.

Street Naming and Sectioning

Before a systematic property survey can take place, the city needs to be sectioned and all streets need to be named and numbered. Usually a committee is created under the city council to provide names to streets. The streets are then assigned codes and indexed in the system.

Property Surveys

A systematic property survey with reliable and high-quality data is fundamental to ensure all citizens are taxed correctly. The survey collects the data required for the valuation methodology. Due to lack of market value data, RDF usually implements a points-based mass valuation approach that is aligned to proxy market values.