‘Taxation policy must be gender sensitive’

ZIMBABWE Revenue Authority (Zimra) commissioner-general, Ms Regina Chinamasa, has stressed the need for the crafting of a taxation policy that is gender sensitive while taking into consideration the contribution of disadvantaged groups.

Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra)

Noting how women make enormous contributions to economies through working in farms, businesses, formal employment, self-employment, and unpaid domestic or care work at home, she advocates that such people should be taxed differently.

Ms Chinamasa was speaking at a recent Women in Tax Dialogue forum organised by the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) and her presentation was focused on the divergent impact of tax policy, and leadership decisions on gender.

The Zimra boss noted that the way Government raises revenues has a different impact on women and men hence the need for policy sensitivity.

“Women experience Government and tax systems differently especially in the lower income contexts as they are bound by different social norms and work more in the informal sector,” said Ms Chinamasa.

She said women, in general, commit the bulk of their income to their families’ well-being, and to education, and thus, where this income is heavily taxed, it leaves them with little resources for taking care of families.

“This leads to compromised education and health care for the families. The fact that women are the ones mostly burdened with issues to do with care work, calls for high levels of responsibility and maturity for them to balance their work life and this might affect their levels of tax compliance where applicable,” said Ms Chinamasa.

She noted that tax policy has generally been regarded as having explicit or implicit bias to gender and that some tax regimes have generally not considered gender biases in designing policy.

That is due to the fact that men and women are considered equal and hence their same treatment for taxation purposes, said the Zimra boss.

“This emanates from some national policies, which usually advocate for equal rights, and the same concept is cascaded to tax administration,” she said.

“Some jurisdictions have adopted horizontal tax equity, which suggests that taxpayers in similar circumstances should bear a similar tax burden, hence no difference between the taxation of men and women. In Zimbabwe, this is the situation.”

Ms Chinamasa suggested that if the leadership is mainly male-dominated, chances are high that gender issues might not be given the attention they deserve.

She is of the view that through its income distribution function, tax policy can contribute to gender equality and to governments’ efforts to reduce inequalities.

As part of policy interventions, the commissioner general said the Governments should put in place measures that enhance opportunities for women to benefit from high-income earning activities.

Making reference to Zimbabwe, she said a number of women have taken advantage and are benefitting from initiatives that were put in place for their economic empowerment.

“These include the setting up of a women’s bank that is enhancing the income generation capacity of women beneficiaries. With enhanced opportunities, it may not matter whether the income is taxed equally as men’s income, what matters is the opportunity to earn more income, which even when taxed progressively at high rates will leave higher disposable income,” she said.-chronicle.co.zw