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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| The country where you can choose your tax rate | The country where you can choose your tax rate |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Mali currently has two rates of income tax - 30%... or 3%. Quite a difference. So the BBC's Alex Duval Smith was surprised to be offered a choice when she went to register at her local tax office in Bamako. | Mali currently has two rates of income tax - 30%... or 3%. Quite a difference. So the BBC's Alex Duval Smith was surprised to be offered a choice when she went to register at her local tax office in Bamako. |
| Outside the yellow concrete building, a man is tethering a ram to the railings. It's not an uncommon sight; he has probably just bought the animal and has an errand at the tax office on his way home. | Outside the yellow concrete building, a man is tethering a ram to the railings. It's not an uncommon sight; he has probably just bought the animal and has an errand at the tax office on his way home. |
| Inside, a row of cashiers are seated behind aluminium-framed thick glass. Each has large handbag plonked on the counter. Each bag is a different colour. Mali, for all its poverty and problems, is always hitting you with moments of accidental beauty. | Inside, a row of cashiers are seated behind aluminium-framed thick glass. Each has large handbag plonked on the counter. Each bag is a different colour. Mali, for all its poverty and problems, is always hitting you with moments of accidental beauty. |
| But the cashiers' eyes are glazed over from inactivity. The International Monetary Fund believes Mali has the potential to improve its revenue-raising by 20%. It's not happening in here. | But the cashiers' eyes are glazed over from inactivity. The International Monetary Fund believes Mali has the potential to improve its revenue-raising by 20%. It's not happening in here. |
| My mission - to register as a tax payer - takes me round the back of the cashiers, to Mrs Yattara's shoe box office. She shares it with three colleagues. There's a handbag on each desk. There's a computer, too. It's used to print out pro-forma tax declaration forms. But all the data is copied in to stacks of exercise books. Some in red ink, some in blue. | My mission - to register as a tax payer - takes me round the back of the cashiers, to Mrs Yattara's shoe box office. She shares it with three colleagues. There's a handbag on each desk. There's a computer, too. It's used to print out pro-forma tax declaration forms. But all the data is copied in to stacks of exercise books. Some in red ink, some in blue. |
| I first met Mrs Yattara, a smart woman with glasses, during the annual tax census. This is when the entire staff, bearing clipboards, leaves the office to search the neighbourhood for more tax payers. | I first met Mrs Yattara, a smart woman with glasses, during the annual tax census. This is when the entire staff, bearing clipboards, leaves the office to search the neighbourhood for more tax payers. |
| There's always one casualty - an unlucky shopkeeper who gets closed down as an example to the others. This year a soft-drink seller was presented with a tax bill of 80,000 CFA francs - that's about $160 dollars or £100 - and when he couldn't pay, they padlocked his shop. After a week he offered to pay half the amount and added a few crates of orange squash for the tax staff. Problem solved. | There's always one casualty - an unlucky shopkeeper who gets closed down as an example to the others. This year a soft-drink seller was presented with a tax bill of 80,000 CFA francs - that's about $160 dollars or £100 - and when he couldn't pay, they padlocked his shop. After a week he offered to pay half the amount and added a few crates of orange squash for the tax staff. Problem solved. |
| Mrs Yattara leads me to her boss, Mr Kante. He has an office all to himself, and offers me a seat... a seat from which I can hardly see him. Tax rule books and copies of Finance Ministry decrees are piled into turrets all around his desk. He asks me questions about my expenses as a freelance journalist. It's unnerving because he is writing things down but I can't see what. | Mrs Yattara leads me to her boss, Mr Kante. He has an office all to himself, and offers me a seat... a seat from which I can hardly see him. Tax rule books and copies of Finance Ministry decrees are piled into turrets all around his desk. He asks me questions about my expenses as a freelance journalist. It's unnerving because he is writing things down but I can't see what. |
| ''You have the choice between two income tax regimens, 30% or 3%, which shall it be?'' | ''You have the choice between two income tax regimens, 30% or 3%, which shall it be?'' |
| ''Oh well... err 3%?'' I venture. ''Three per cent it is," he says, adding: "Now we'll have to go and see my boss.'' | ''Oh well... err 3%?'' I venture. ''Three per cent it is," he says, adding: "Now we'll have to go and see my boss.'' |
| This doesn't faze me. Hierarchy is everything in Mali. In the course of settling everyday matters I have already met the managing directors of Mali's water and electricity boards and of the post office. I imagine that it's so rare for someone to walk off the street and offer to pay income tax that the boss would want to meet that person. | This doesn't faze me. Hierarchy is everything in Mali. In the course of settling everyday matters I have already met the managing directors of Mali's water and electricity boards and of the post office. I imagine that it's so rare for someone to walk off the street and offer to pay income tax that the boss would want to meet that person. |
| Mr Kantako's office is enormous, with chairs lining three walls. That's normal too, because in hierarchical Mali, people move around in delegations. The meeting involves a lot of niceties. Curiously, I am expected to provide the British government's position on the demands from Tuareg rebels for self-rule in northern Mali. | Mr Kantako's office is enormous, with chairs lining three walls. That's normal too, because in hierarchical Mali, people move around in delegations. The meeting involves a lot of niceties. Curiously, I am expected to provide the British government's position on the demands from Tuareg rebels for self-rule in northern Mali. |
| ''Err... Britain just wants peace,'' I say, limply. All my energy is going on trying to suppress my delight at paying 3% income tax. | ''Err... Britain just wants peace,'' I say, limply. All my energy is going on trying to suppress my delight at paying 3% income tax. |
| ''Now then.'' The tax boss asks Mr Kante to brief him about my case. Both men pore over a calculator and come up with a figure of 236,160 francs ($380, £260). | |
| ''Hmm, I would like to have seen a rounder figure,'' says Mr Kantako eventually. ''And the pound is strong - I think we would like 300,000 francs ($485, £327) from you.'' He gives me the same open look as you get when buying almost anything in Mali. As much as to say: "That's my offer what's yours?" | |
| ''Oh, and we'll want that in cash,'' he says, "but you will be given a receipt." | ''Oh, and we'll want that in cash,'' he says, "but you will be given a receipt." |
| Mr Kante offers some explanation as we go back downstairs. ''Eighty per cent of Mali's economy is informal," he says. "The government believes the 3% rate will attract more tax payers. What people don't realise is that, as things stand, we struggle to raise 1% or 2%. So this new rate represents something of an increase!'' | Mr Kante offers some explanation as we go back downstairs. ''Eighty per cent of Mali's economy is informal," he says. "The government believes the 3% rate will attract more tax payers. What people don't realise is that, as things stand, we struggle to raise 1% or 2%. So this new rate represents something of an increase!'' |
| By that reckoning, the Malian tax authorities have actually done quite well out of me. | By that reckoning, the Malian tax authorities have actually done quite well out of me. |
| Perhaps because I had - strangely - volunteered to pay tax, a basic sense of fairness stood in the way of the staff putting me into the 30% bracket, where perhaps I belong. | Perhaps because I had - strangely - volunteered to pay tax, a basic sense of fairness stood in the way of the staff putting me into the 30% bracket, where perhaps I belong. |
| As I leave, so does the man with the ram. Except the ram remains tied to the railings. | As I leave, so does the man with the ram. Except the ram remains tied to the railings. |
| ''Monsieur!'' I call out. He turns around. | ''Monsieur!'' I call out. He turns around. |
| ''Your ram?'' | ''Your ram?'' |
| He shakes his head. "No, no, I've had to give it to them," he says matter-of-factly, and walks away. | He shakes his head. "No, no, I've had to give it to them," he says matter-of-factly, and walks away. |
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