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Dr. Lyla Latif
Why the U.N. Must Put AI and Data on the Tax Agenda
The publication argues that the United Nations ad hoc committee on international tax cooperation must prioritize the structural implications of artificial intelligence (AI) to establish a more inclusive and equitable global tax system. The complexities of the AI-driven economy, including data issues, intellectual property rights, and the fragmentation of the AI value chain, pose significant challenges to traditional tax frameworks. Latif emphasizes the need for new international tax rules and mechanisms that address these unique characteristics, ensuring that countries, particularly in the Global South, can effectively assert their taxing rights and benefit from the value generated by AI technologies.
Uploaded by Dr. Lyla Latif
I have expertise in public finance and redistribution. My research, legal practice and publications focus on the physical and digital creation, movement, allocation and taxation of wealth, income, profits and revenue towards development needs and advancing progressive tax systems. I also train on international business taxation and on curbing illicit financial flows. My work has benefited African based and international advocacy organisations and think tanks; informed policy and law making at government level and provided pan-African specialist insight to international financing organisations. Outside Africa, I have studied and published on the tax systems of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the UAE and Qatar. I have supported capacity building, strengthening tax literacy and redefining norms around revenue mobilisation, financial flows, digitalisation, realising rights, financing and implementing SDGs, redistribution and fiscal systems in Africa. I am a first-class law graduate from the University of Nairobi, with a double Masters; one in public finance and financial services law and another in public policy and development. I have a PhD in wealth tax and financing public health. As the Chief Executive of Lai'Latif & Co Advocates, I have crafted a unique legal practice that not only excels in corporate and international taxation, and transactions law but also uplifts underprivileged women through a philanthropic wing powered by zakat. My dedication to social justice extends to my prominent roles on the boards of the Tax Justice Network (UK) and the International Lawyers Project. My expertise has been instrumental in shaping tax doctrine and practice in East Africa, as a member of the East Africa Law Society's inaugural Tax Law Committee. I am also a trainer with Capabuild, Rotterdam's premier tax capacity building organisation, imparting my knowledge of international tax norms and rules to revenue authorities in Botswana, Indonesia, and Kenya. As the visionary Chair and co-founder of the Committee on Fiscal Studies, I lead a team of brilliant minds in our quest to reform and strengthen tax systems in the global south. Through research, policy advocacy, capacity building, and tax trainings, I strive to bridge the knowledge gap and empower developing nations to build more robust and equitable fiscal systems. In October 2023 I was appointed by the Ministry of Information, Communications and Digital Economy of the Republic of Kenya to lead on developing a roadmap and regulations for creating an enabling environment for emerging technologies (AI, IoT, 5G) and data governance in Kenya. I have also designed for Tax Justice Network Africa an Anti-IFF Policy Tracker for AU Member States to pilot and evaluate the extent to which their laws, institutions and cross border exchange of information is robust in preventing IFFs.
Publication Details
Date Of Publication:
Author:
Lyla Latif
Country:
United States
Languages:
English
Category:
Tax and the International Financial Architecture
Resource Type:
Publications