Loading...
Gendered implications of tax reform in latin america
Huber,Evelyne
Huber,Evelyne
Author(s)
Author(s) (Additional)
Illustrator(s)
Producer(s)
Contributor(s)
Contributor(s) (Other)
Editor(s)
Advisor(s)
Contact(s)
Data Collector(s)
Keywords
Collections
Files
Loading...
dhuber.pdf
Adobe PDF, 328.22 KB
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Online Access
Abstract
"In Latin American and Caribbean countries, poverty and inequality have been long-standing problems, and the momentous economic and social policy changes over the past two decades have done little to correct these trends.* The most effective means for reducing class- and gender-based poverty and inequality would be citizenship-based entitlements to basic (i.e. allowing basic subsistence) income support, health care, and education. In advanced industrial societies, public spending is an extremely important instrument for the alleviation of class- and gender-based poverty and inequality (Moller et al. 2003; Bradley et al. 2003; Huber et al. 2001), and it could potentially play a similar role in Latin America and the Caribbean. However, responsible, that is, non-inflationary financing of such programs requires a sound system of taxation, something that is scarce in developing countries, including in Latin America and the Caribbean. Systems of taxation on their part have important implications for class and gender equity. This chapter explores changes in the systems of taxation in four Latin American and Caribbean countries – Argentina, Chile, Costa Rica, and Jamaica – from the point of view of their gendered impact. The starting point of the argument is that effective tax collection is a necessary, though not sufficient, condition for the amelioration of gender-based poverty and inequality. Low aggregate tax collection hurts women because it prevents the establishment of programs that counteract market distribution of income, in which women are generally disadvantaged. They are disadvantaged in market income because they provide the bulk of the non-paid care work, because their paid work takes place in the informal sector to a greater extent than men’s paid work, and because – if they work in the formal sector – they tend to be employed in smaller enterprises and to earn less than men. Latin American countries as a whole have been undertaxing their populations, with an average tax burden of 14% of GDP in the first half of the 1990s, compared to 17% of GDP in a group of East and Southeast Asian countries (IADB 1996: 128). Direct taxes amount to about 25% of tax revenue only, and of this amount some 60-80% typically come from corporate tax payments, while only 10-15% come from private individuals (ECLAC 1998: 72). Interestingly, the situation in the English-speaking Caribbean has been very different, with an average tax burden in the first half of the 1990s of 27-28% of GDP, essentially double the rate of Latin America, and direct taxation on individuals and corporations accounting for some 40% of tax revenue (ECLAC 1998: 66-72). This contrast suggests that the fundamental reasons for the poor tax collection performance in Latin America are poor policy choices, rather than low levels of economic development and technological capacity."(pg 3)
Note(s)
Topic
Type
Preprint
Date
2005-05
Identifier
ISBN
DOI
Copyright/License
With permission of the license/copyright holder