Ruth Osei-Asante, Chair of the Women Committee (WOC) of the PSI affiliate the Union of Industry, Commerce and Finance Workers (UNICOF) of TUC Ghana, has said tax systems in most developing countries seem rigged against women and reinforce social norms that privilege men.
According to her, women seem to bear a disproportionate share of the overall tax burden even as public spending mostly tends to favour men.
She further opines that benefits of most corporate tax breaks, tax incentives, and rebates largely sidestep women who are mostly in the informal sector, although indirect taxes in VAT/consumption taxes greatly hit women given the size of income used for housekeeping and caregiving.
Mrs Osei-Asante made the above assertions explaining the essential role of tax justice in improving women’s rights and gender equality as part of the 5th Global Days of Action on Tax Justice for Women’s Rights event held by the Global Alliance for Tax Justice.
“The persistence of this heavy burden on women implies that tax justice must be central to the efforts to improve women’s rights and gender equality. In the context where women comprise more than half the world’s population, over 60 percent of the world’s poor, and two-thirds of those illiterates, the value of a fairer tax system cannot be underestimated. In fact, the attainment of most of the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals will be severely threatened if the adverse and undue effect of tax and tax systems on women is not reversed,” she stated.
According to her, women in developing countries must be empowered to contribute to the issues of taxation, thereby influencing the trajectory of economic and human rights in developing societies.
Adding, it will only take women to expose the negative impact of tax policies on their well-being and that women’s participation in the formation of tax policies will ensure public services are designed, to respond to and fulfil the needs and rights of women.
