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The literature on taxation in developing countries has centered on the importance of third-party information for enforcement. Yet, while surely a long-run objective, leveraging such information remains out of reach in many of the world’s poorest countries due to largely informal economies and low state capacity. This article reviews an emerging complementary literature focused on strengthening the “sinews” of state capacity: tax administration. We draw two main conclusions: (i) nitty-gritty reforms to tax administration concerning organizational structure, personnel management, and task management have significant potential to raise revenue in developing countries, but (ii) the value of administrative reforms will be limited unless the government also achieves legitimacy. Our approach bridges a long-standing divide between how scholars in public finance and political economy approach tax capacity building in developing countries.