Togo - The Local Government Revenue Initiative

Thematic Areas

In Togo, the central government collects property taxes through the Togolese Tax Revenue Authority (Office Togolais des Recettes, OTR), guided by the Tax Code (Code Général des Impôts, CGI) and the Fiscal Procedure Handbook (Livre des Procédures Fiscales, LPF). The CGI outlines the policy framework, tax base, and rates, while the LPF specifies tax control, enforcement, payment, and appeals procedures. Taxes are applied to both built and unbuilt properties, with revenue distribution equally divided: 50 percent to municipalities and prefectures and 50 percent split between the central government and OTR to cover operational costs.

Created in 2012, the OTR is a semi-autonomous government body attached to the Ministry of Economy and Finance, combining previous tax and customs authorities. It manages tax operations for the central and local governments. At the beginning of the property tax cycle, the OTR’s Cadastre and Property Registry Directorate is responsible for property identification and valuation. The Tax Directorate then manages billing, collection, and enforcement. The collected taxes are transferred to the Treasury for redistribution to local governments. Municipalities aid the OTR by promoting taxpayer participation in census activities and by recruiting and training census enumerators.

Property taxation performs poorly in Togo, largely due to the incomplete property registers and the absence of cadasters in most of the country. As a result, recent reforms have focused on modernization, particularly through establishing an up-to-date land and fiscal cadaster. To do so, the OTR has digitalized property census taking activities through data collection on tablets and embedding geolocation mapping. The modernization reforms have also included tax collection via banks and enabling online declarations and payments.

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