RSM Tanzania Thought Leadership Series – The Digitalisation of Revenue Authorities: AI and the End of “Tax Planning as Usual”

Tax authorities in Africa are changing the game. No longer reliant on manual audits, regulators like the TRA are now deploying AI-driven anomaly detection tools that spot mismatches with surgical precision.

Example: In 2025, a Tanzanian logistics company received a machine-generated query highlighting a 23% fuel expense spike vs. only 5% revenue growth, benchmarked against industry peers. This wasn’t a human query; it was flagged by an algorithm.

In this article, our Tax Team explores how:

• AI and digitalisation are transforming tax enforcement across Africa.
• Compliance is shifting from reactive to predictive, data-driven oversight.
• Businesses must rethink strategies in an era where “tax planning as usual” no longer applies.

The message is clear: Revenue Authorities are becoming smarter, faster, and more data-enabled — and businesses must adapt to keep pace.