A dissertation submitted to department of accounting and finance in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the award of the Degree of Masters of Science in Accounting and Finance of Mzumbe University.The purpose of this study was to assess factors affecting revenue collection in Local government authorities with specific reference to Mpwapwa District Council (MDC). The main units of enquiry were revenue collectors being comprised of some employees and revenue collecting agents within the Council. The specific objectives of the study were to assess the impacts of political interference, human resource management, the nature of economic activities and the preparation of tax laws relating with revenue collection; to assess the strength and weaknesses of strategies adapted by the Local government authorities (LGAs) in ensuring that revenue are collected efficiently and effectively; to assess the causes of tax evasion among potential tax payers in LGAs; and assessment of effectiveness of revenue internal controls in ensuring accountability and transparency. Questionnaires, documentary review and interview guides were employed as basic research instruments for data collection. Observation was another method which was employed in the data collection for this study. The result of the study revealed that between 2010/2011-2012/2013 financial years MDC persistently experienced several problems in collecting revenue from its own sources. A number of factors were noted to affect negatively revenue collection in LGAs, these include inadequate revenue collection strategies, tax evasion, ineffective revenue internal controls, laxity of LGAs, lack of competent revenue collecting staff, corrupt acts, poor cooperation between councils’ staffs and revenue agents, poor relationship between tax payers and tax collectors, political interferences, tax laws preparation process, level of economic activities and seasonal revenue sources. It is recommended that the LGAs should take appropriate measures to reduce or eradicate completely the factors affecting revenue collection to LGAs.