Tax Revenue Appeals Tribunal (TRAT) was established in 2002 and its Registry starts to operate in 2003.

Establishment of The Unified Tax Appeals System

Prior to the establishment of TRAT  (the New Unified Tax Appeals Machinery), there was the National Tax Appeals Board, which had jurisdiction to hear and determine only Income Tax Appeals arising from the decisions of the Commissioner of Income Tax. After that, the aggrieved party had a room to appeal to the High court and finally to the Court of Appeal of Tanzania. Due to the fact that the main source of revenue of any country depend mainly on Taxation; therefore it is important to establish a Unified Tax Appeal machinery which will determine tax disputes at a speedy,efficiency and impacial so as to realize government revenue without undue delay.

The establishment of TRAT was meant to replace the previous institution which dealt with appeals originating from the Income Tax Laws only.

TRAT was established along with the coming into force of the Tanzania Revenue Authority (TRA) Act of 2000; which empowers the Commissioner General of TRA to deal and oversee all undersigned revenue laws .

In order to implement the policy of TRAT the Parliament enacted the Tax Revenue Appeals Act, Cap 408 [RE 2009], which establishes Tax Revenue Appeals Board and Tax Revenue Appeals Tribunal.

These Tax Revenue Appeals Board (TRAB) and Tax Revenue Appeals Tribunal (TRAT) are quasi-judicial institutions, established under Sections 4 and 8 of the Tax Revenue Appeals Act, Cap 408 [RE 2009] respectively.