The International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD) is an independent research centre, based at IDS, and focused on improving tax policy and administration in lower-income countries with the aim of reducing inequality, fostering inclusive growth, and enhancing governance.

Led by Professor Giulia Mascagni, the ICTD’s research leadership team includes Martin Hearson, Max Gallien, Giovanni Occhiali, Daisy Ogembo, Fabrizio Santoro and Vanessa van den Boogaard.

The ICTD supports their partners in raising revenue to fund public services in ways that are equitable, efficient, and strengthen accountability. In this way, their efforts contribute to advancing sustainable development by reducing inequality, fostering inclusive growth, and enhancing governance.

ICTD is supported by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Norad and the Gates Foundation.

Key ICTD research themes

• Tax administration and compliance
• Climate and environmental tax
• Digital Public Infrastructure and tax
• Gender and tax
• Informality and tax
• International tax
• Subnational and property tax
• Tax and governance
• Tax, welfare and inequality (including taxing the wealthy)

Study with ICTD: short course, pursuing a PhD and our free Learning Portal

Every year, ICTD runs a free-of-charge hybrid nine month course on  ‘Research on Tax and Development‘. Calls for applications usually take place in the summer. Be the first to know by signing up to our newsletter (below) and/or following us on social media.

Interested in pursuing a PhD with ICTD? Find out more about available scholarships.

You can also find open access resources to help you learn about key tax and development issues in low-income countries by using the ICTD’s Learning Portal.

Keep up to date with our work on tax and development

Visit the ICTD website and sign-up to the newsletter for regular updates be the first to know about our events and latest ICTD publications.

You can also follow ICTD on BlueSky, LinkedIn and Facebook.