What is progressive taxation?
Decades of high levels of tax evasion and avoidance rooted in extractive colonial relations between the Global North and South has left many Global South countries lacking the resources to fund their own development. The result is public services, such as schools, hospitals and infrastructure that are critically underfunded.
Tax evasion and avoidance as well as other loopholes means that the world’s money and resources flow to the world’s elite based in the Global North. Currently, the world’s richest 1% have more than twice as much wealth as nearly 90% of the world’s population.[1]
Why is it integral to women’s human rights?
Extreme inequality is growing and women are disproportionately impacted.
Wherever states lack robust, public services, the burden of unpaid care work too often falls on women. Women are limited in their ability to engage in paid work, live independently and access their full rights. It is a government’s duty to ensure the rights of all people are achieved, through ensuring entities pay their fair share in tax and maximising the potential resources available to them. The key to this is progressive taxation. Tax justice is essential to achieve gender equality and women’s rights.
Womankind and partners work
Tax injustice and the extreme inequality it creates is a global issue that requires a global solution. Poverty and inequality limits the opportunities and choices for women to live free, independent lives.
In partnership with networks such as the Global Alliance for Tax Justice we advocate for tax justice and the redistribution of resources. We emphasise the need to consider the impact on women in tax reform and government budgets.
[1] https://www.oxfam.org/en/5-shocking-facts-about-extreme-global-inequality-and-how-even-it
[2] http://www.ipsnews.net/2012/08/women-spend-40-billion-hours-collecting-water/
