Home > Impact Stories > Workers, researchers and tax authorities join forces to reshape tax policy debates in Ghana

Tax policy debates have historically been dominated by the unfair view that workers in informal employment operate in the shadows and avoid paying tax.

WIEGO’s research with workers in Accra tells a different story:  most workers in informal employment, like street vendors, market traders and kayayei or market porters – pay taxes and fees, with the lowest earners paying the highest proportion of their earnings.

Exploratory research reveals how informal sector taxation works

Ghana has been at the centre of tax debates, as the country has a large informal economy and its government collects a relatively small percentage of the nation’s GDP as tax revenue.

WIEGO’s work began in 2018, when researchers surveyed over 200 street and market vendors and kayayei in Accra.

The survey found that although many earned too little to meet the income threshold for the national income tax, about 60 per cent of all the workers surveyed paid some type of fee or tax. These included daily taxes and fees for their stall, licence and storage.

This burden was also found to be highly regressive. This means that although many would support  an approach where those who earn the highest incomes pay the highest proportion of tax (what’s referred to as progressive taxation), in effect, what was happening in Accra was the opposite: that workers with the lowest incomes paid the highest proportion of tax, based on their earnings.

Though the survey was not representative of the workforce, it showed researchers how the tax system worked, and how few workers were exempt from paying any.

The findings confirmed what WIEGO had heard from worker leaders, and demonstrated the need for more research.

Street vendor, market trader and waste picker leaders participate in a training session with the WIEGO team. Photo credit: Julian Luckham

Building relationships to promote tax justice

In 2021, WIEGO teamed up with the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) to do in-depth research on Accra’s tax system. ICTD is an independent research centre focused on improving tax policy and administration in lower-income countries.

ICTD’s experience with tax design and relationships with tax authorities, combined with  WIEGO’s relationships with organizations of workers in informal employment have supported research and advocacy strategies that connect these groups.

Vanessa van den Boogaard, co-lead of Informality and Tax at the ICTD, says WIEGO’s credibility with worker organizations is an asset.

“The credibility of the organization, the reputation that they have with informal workers associations, helps a lot, for us to be able to do research and data collection with those groups,” she says.

Nana Akua Anyidoho, a researcher at the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) at the University of Ghana, says WIEGO connects research and advocacy in a way that has tangible impact, bringing worker organizations and their research partners together as allies.

“For an organization to work with both those cultures, and speak both those languages – I’ve been really impressed,” she says.

“As a researcher in an academic environment, I don’t always have the satisfaction of seeing the research I do have real world impact in this obvious and fast way.”

WIEGO also connects academics and activists with worker organizations, including the Greater Accra Markets Association and the Union of Informal Workers Associations. It has helped organize workshops in Ghana to train worker leaders on tax policy and how to incorporate tax justice into their advocacy.

Betty Armah, a seamstress in Accra's Abokobi Market reviews her records. Photo credit: Yaw Afrim Gyebi

Representative study confirms informal sector taxation is highly regressive

A cornerstone of the joint work by ISSER, the ICTD and WIEGO was a 2022 survey of 2,700 self-employed informal workers in Accra. It was the first geographically representative survey of informal sector taxation.

The researchers found very little room to further tax the sector. They found that most workers were not covered by a pension programme, did not receive cash transfers, were not beneficiaries of poverty-relief programmes, and did not participate in microfinance schemes.

For workers who earn the least, the ratio of taxes to earnings was found to be substantially higher than for formal workers.

Members of the Greater Accra Market Association share their experiences during a workshop co-hosted by WIEGO, the ICTD and the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) in Accra, Ghana. Photo credit: Courtesy of International Centre for Tax and Development.

Bridging lived experience and evidence: worker leaders and researchers in conversation

WIEGO believes that when workers have relevant research and statistics and are supported to use it in their advocacy, they can change systems over time.

In Ghana, worker leaders contribute practical examples of what they experience, and researchers produce evidence workers can use in policy debates and advocacy.

Dorcas Ansah, WIEGO’s Focal City Coordinator for Accra, says worker leaders “give practical examples of what they see on the ground, so I would say their knowledge and experience is actually charting the path.”

“It’s been very iterative,” she says.

Learning from what workers report about their experience and needs helps ensure that the research is something that workers have ownership of and can use in their advocacy.

WIEGO’s tax justice work in Ghana seeks to shape national policies and reforms, as well as to inform global conversations about tax justice and informality elsewhere, particularly where there are parallels in policy questions and design approaches.

Representations from the Ghana Revenue Authorities, Ministries of Finance, civil society, activists and academics at a workshop put on by WIEGO, the ICTD and the African Tax Administration Forum in Akosombo, Ghana. Photo credit: International Centre for Tax and Development.

Sharing the evidence with tax authorities

In early 2025, WIEGO, the ICTD and the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) presented a three-day workshop on the taxation of informal employment, with support from the Ghana Revenue Authority.

It brought together 80 participants from more than 25 countries, including 16 revenue authorities, ministries of finance, civil society organizations, activists and academics.

Alex Kombat, Assistant Commissioner in the Research and Policy Unit of the Ghana Revenue Authority, said this approach to sharing research was an “eye-opener”.

“All relevant stakeholders under one roof to not only explain the findings of the research, but also to let their voice be heard. That, I saw as extremely useful to us, which I think has never been done before.”

Revenue authorities show early signs of changing perspectives

Through sustained work in Ghana, there are early signs of a shift in the narrative about taxation of workers in the informal economy – beginning with a hard-won broad agreement that taxes should target the highest earners and be informed by evidence.

Mike Rogan, Urban Policies Programme Research Associate at WIEGO, says this agreement was not a quick win.

“I think we’ve reached a point of consensus in the policy and the research community that the current practices are not working. Even if we disagree on the reasons they’re not working, it’s a point of departure. It means there’s something to be done. Which leads to credibility for the research and continuing on this way.”

Max Gallien and Vanessa van den Boogaard, both of the ICT sit alongside Laura Alfers and Mike Rogan of WIEGO during a joint event. Photo credit: International Centre for Tax & Development

Sustained collaborations aim to promote systems change

WIEGO’s longstanding culture of collaboration and its resulting partnerships have facilitated rigorous research and built trust.

In addition to its close partnership with the ICTD, WIEGO has worked with researchers from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

In 2025, WIEGO and the ICTD committed to another five years of working together to advance tax justice, and the ICTD launched a Community of Practice on Informality and Tax. The global network brings practitioners and scholars together for peer-to-peer exchanges, collaboration, engagement and learning about how tax authorities engage with informal economies.

Max Gallien, co-lead of Informality and Tax at the ICTD, says, “The fact that it’s a long term partnership, it’s a set of really, good, trusting and warm relationships, means we have the time to do version one of the project, realize what didn’t quite work, do version two of it and do it better. That’s how research works, and that’s so rare to be able to do that nowadays, because so many things have such a short timeline… Long time horizons and strong partnerships are so useful in the long term.”

WIEGO researchers, their partners and worker leaders know systems change is a slow burn – but the Community of Practice provides a foundation for workers and researchers to continue to work together to influence the tax policies that shape their livelihoods and bring about tax justice.