## Appendix 1: Country Examples

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---

### I. Introduction
- Gender equality is an integral component of fiscal reform and a key enabler of more inclusive and sustainable economic growth.
- Revenue administrations (tax and customs administrations) can leverage relationships with taxpayers and traders to strengthen participation of women and girls in the economy.
- Effective and efficient tax collection finances spending that supports women and girls: water, sanitation, social protection programs (maternal and parental leave, paid childcare), targeted social transfers, health, education, public sector employment expenditure that helps close seniority and wage gaps, and digitalization.
- Purpose: provide a practical overview of interactions between revenue administrations and gender equality, including:
  - applying a gender lens when administering tax or trade laws to reduce barriers to women's employment, entrepreneurship, and trade;
  - developing gender-balanced and inclusive workforces with policies and procedures that ensure equal employment opportunities.

### II. Gender Equality as an Enabler for Social and Economic Empowerment
- Definition and rationale:
  - Gender equality addresses the right to freedom from bias or favoritism; requires treating people of all genders fairly and justly.
  - Achieving greater gender equality may require proactive government steps to ensure policy and decision making is gender sensitive and that women are adequately represented in decision making.
- Evidence on economic gains:
  - Study: female labor force participation in Canada is positively associated with labor productivity growth leading to gains in real GDP (Petersson, Mariscal, and Ishi 2017).
  - Dabla‑Norris and Kochhar (2019) estimate: for countries with low levels of gender equality, “closing the gender gap in employment could increase GDP by an average of 35 percent—of which 7–8 percentage points are productivity gains due to gender diversity” (page 9).
- Role of gender-sensitive tax policies:
  - Implementing gender-sensitive tax policies is among the actions required to increase GDP through greater gender equality.
  - Given COVID-19 and its negative effect on women and girls (Tang and others 2021), gender-sensitive tax policies are emphasized as more crucial than ever.
- Role of revenue administrations:
  - Help boost women’s economic participation and mobilize revenue to finance gender-sensitive social and economic development programs.
  - Outcome depends on effective administration of gender-sensitive tax systems and the ability to mobilize revenue to support more equitable public expenditure.

### III. How Revenue Administrations Contribute to Gender Equality
- Two primary levers:
  - Administer gender-sensitive tax laws effectively and apply a gender lens when administering tax and trade laws to reduce barriers to women’s employment, entrepreneurship, and trade.
  - Build a gender-balanced and inclusive workforce with policies and procedures that ensure equal employment opportunities.
- Organizational benefits:
  - A diverse, representative workforce can enhance organizational performance and delivery and improve workplace culture.
  - Profiling as a gender-balanced and inclusive employer can help attract and retain a diverse, more skilled workforce and build trust with taxpayers.
  - Addressing compliance needs of women taxpayers and traders may reduce cost of collection and compliance costs for women, potentially increasing voluntary compliance.
    - Example cost-of-collection calculation: an administration with costs of $8 million that collects a total of $10 million in taxes has a cost of collection of 0.8 ($8 million/$10 million).

- Administering gender-sensitive tax laws and applying a gender lens:
  - Governments may adopt gender-sensitive tax laws; these require unbiased and effective administration (example: refundable childcare credits may be claimed by a family’s lowest secondary earner, often a woman; heavy compliance actions may discourage claims and negate benefits).
  - Recommendation: compile data disaggregated by gender to identify women taxpayers and traders and ensure compliance profiles are not overlooked.
  - Empirical findings cited:
    - Uganda study suggests women are more compliant than men regarding at least some tax obligations (Kangave, Waiswa, and Sebaggala 2021).
    - Study using data from Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom over a 20-year period reveals a higher willingness to comply among women (Torgler and Valev 2010).
  - Women may be overrepresented in sectors such as early childhood education, health, beauty, and hospitality; services tailored to those sectors may be required.
  - In many low-income countries, women microentrepreneurs dominate the informal sector; targeted approaches can help bring them into the formal sector and link future tax payments to benefits from government programs.
  - Women are often underrepresented in community business organizations that provide feedback to revenue administrations; increasing female membership can improve policy responsiveness.

- Three key areas for better engaging women taxpayers and traders:
  1. Understanding barriers restricting women from accessing systems.
  2. Tailoring services and products for women taxpayers and traders.
  3. Reducing enforcement bias where women may be unconsciously targeted for compliance actions.

### Understanding barriers restricting women’s economic participation (selected barriers and statistics)
- Low levels of literacy, including financial, tax, and digital literacy:
  - Literacy gender gaps: South Asia (17.2 percent), sub-Saharan Africa (14.6 percent), Middle East and North Africa (13.6 percent) (Wadhwa 2019).
  - Example: Of 2,000 people in Rwanda who took a quiz on basic tax facts, less than 40 percent knew what tax type they were registered for; best result was only 6 out of 20 questions answered correctly (International Centre for Tax & Development 2021).
- Complexity of tax and trade policy raises compliance costs and is particularly difficult for female entrepreneurs in developing economies (World Bank and World Trade Organization 2020).
- Tax systems may explicitly or implicitly disadvantage women:
  - Joint income assessment can reduce tax benefits for a woman who earns less than her husband.
  - Flat rate fees and taxes can result in women paying disproportionately more of their income in taxes because they earn less.
  - Small and microbusinesses often experience higher tax burdens than larger firms; many women in developing countries are low-income earners or owners of small businesses who may lack access to tax intermediaries.
- Lack of access to credit or a bank account:
  - In low- and middle-income economies, men are 9 percentage points more likely to have an account at a financial institution (Hess and others 2021).
- Limited access to technology and mobile and smartphones:
  - Women frequently have less access to mobile phones and the internet than men; digital access is important as administrations intensify digital engagement.
  - Revenue administrations should work with telecommunications and internet providers to ensure women have equal access for tax information, declarations, payments, and refunds.

### Tailoring services and products for women taxpayers and traders
- Tailor for core obligations: registration, filing and payment, reporting, and dispute resolution.
  - Examples: large taxpayers may be required to file and pay electronically; small taxpayers may be permitted paper returns; large taxpayers may receive one-to-one management.
- Administer laws with the specific needs of women considered:
  - Example: Pakistan’s Federal Board of Revenue established a special desk to address grievances and concerns of women entrepreneurs and to help them file tax returns (Business Recorder 2022).
- Promote financial literacy:
  - Women’s financial inclusion is a powerful lever for advancing gender equality (Cihak and Sahay 2020).
  - Revenue administrations can support entrepreneurship and inclusion through tax awareness sessions, user-friendly automation, and collaboration to eliminate barriers to women obtaining bank accounts (Hendriks 2019).

### Reducing compliance and enforcement bias
- Review administrative approaches to identify and remove explicit or implicit gender bias, including language subtleties and audit case selection criteria.
  - Example: United States Earned Income Tax Credit supports low-income women and families and has boosted labor force participation among single mothers; however, claimants are audited more frequently, creating an additional burden on low-income women who claim it (Kleiman, Matsui, and Mitchell 2019).
- Recognize that gender-neutral intentions may be gender blind (United Nations 2017).
  - Policies and practices that are gender-neutral in intention can affect men and women differently due to different socioeconomic realities (for example, restricting service hours to regular business hours may disadvantage women with childcare responsibilities).
- Consider gender in setting case allocation priorities for audit and enforcement:
  - Assigning a single officer of one gender to audit or investigate a taxpayer of another gender, or a sector predominantly of another gender, can introduce bias or be inappropriate in some cultural settings.

### Building a gender-balanced and inclusive revenue administration workforce
- Rationale and principles:
  - A gender-balanced and inclusive workforce should reflect the nature and diversity of the community served.
  - Equal employment opportunity should be upheld; many countries use legislation to address workplace discrimination and require public sector agencies to adopt policies and practices against discrimination.
  - If significant gender imbalance exists, prerecruitment training and changes to recruitment, staff development, and promotion practices may be necessary.
- Empirical findings from the International Survey on Revenue Administration:
  - On average, women make up 52 percent of tax administrations’ staffs but occupy only 40 percent of executive positions.
  - Customs administrations employ fewer women than men:
    - Women make up 37 percent of the global customs workforce.
    - Women occupy 26 percent in senior management positions in customs.
    - 16 percent of heads of customs administrations are women.
  - Gender balance varies by income level:
    - Women make up approximately 38 percent of the revenue administration workforce in low-income developing countries.
    - Women make up 61 percent of the revenue administration workforce in advanced economies.
    - In revenue administration executive roles: 28 percent of executives are female in low-income developing countries, compared with 46 percent in advanced economies.
  - Regional patterns:
    - In all regions except the Americas, women are underrepresented among executives.
    - Women are typically clustered in lower levels of the administration and mostly involved in “service”-type roles.
    - Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean have a higher proportion of female executives compared with other regions.
  - Country example:
    - Rwanda Revenue Authority, fiscal year 2019/20: women employees represented 39.7 percent of the total workforce; males represented 60.3 percent of the total workforce.
- Implication: regions with higher incomes typically have bigger service sectors, higher overall female labor force participation, and a higher percentage of female executives, correlating with revenue administration staff by gender.

### Communication products and services targeted to women taxpayers and traders
- Design communication products and services specifically for women taxpayers and traders and their industry groups’ needs:
  - Provide education and information in nontechnical language, through various channels, and in places easily accessible to different types of women taxpayers and traders.
  - Develop tax and trade business modules for businesses predominately owned by women (often in small-business service sectors such as health care and beauty, welfare, childcare, and hospitality).
  - Develop relationships with local women community advocates or leaders; provide them with training to answer frequently asked questions and involve them in community engagements.
  - Where a tax intermediary body exists, consider establishing a “women and tax” operational group to obtain regular input.
- Objective: use many channels to connect with women, acknowledging constraints of technology, mobility, and finance.
- Example: Jamaica Customs Agency staff collaborate with other border-related agencies to enable customers to access information from all agencies at one time and from one source.

### 6. Latin America and the Caribbean — Initiatives to Help Build a Gender-Balanced and Inclusive Workforce
- Leadership and gender-responsive human resources policies have the greatest effect on building a balanced and inclusive workforce.
- Gender-responsive policies should be broad based: gender equity planning, flexible work arrangements, career development, talent management, and women-friendly workplaces.
- Data (pre- and post-COVID-19): flexible work arrangements, particularly flexible working hours and accommodation of regular remote working, are associated with higher proportions of female staff members and higher proportions of female executives.
- Implementing key performance indicators to monitor gender balance is critical.

- Policy recommendations:
  - Develop partnerships with educational institutions to promote women’s education in areas of revenue administration needs.
  - Set proactive, organization-wide targets in the strategic business plan with relevant key performance indicators.
  - Collect data disaggregated by gender to monitor and report performance.
  - Implement flexible working arrangements: remote work, part time, flexible hours or days, flextime, different leave arrangements, and job sharing.
  - Include parental leave, preferably paid parental leave for both women and men.
  - Provide women-friendly workplace facilities: subsidized or free childcare facilities; access to sanitation products and safe, clean bathrooms; workplace safety policies protecting women from harassment; clothing allowances or uniforms.
  - Make arrangements for safe transport and work with other government authorities to prioritize safety of public transport (UN Women 2021).
  - Provide continuing career development during career breaks (example: Canada Revenue Agency supports employee learning and development for employees on certain types of leave (CRA 2022)).
  - Manage talent: identify female staff with high potential and provide supportive and intensive development programs, leadership and executive training programs.
  - Develop and implement diversity and inclusion initiatives; appoint female candidates where appropriate and ensure qualified women on shortlists; consider targets to reverse past inequality (OECD 2022).
  - Spotlight women leaders as role models and encourage mentoring (IMF 2021c).
  - Encourage women to develop broader networks: OECD Forum on Tax Administration’s Gender Balance Network, OECD’s Women Leaders in Tax Transparency Pilot Programme, African Tax Administration Forum Women in Tax Network.
  - Promote a culture of gender equality: senior leaders must visibly lead change, highlight benefits of diversity, and call out unacceptable behavior and attitudes.

- Potential Key Performance Indicators:
  - Proportion of women in each function or business area
  - Number of women at each level of management
  - Women as a percentage of new recruits
  - Pay levels (including pay gaps)
  - Attrition rates for both men and women
  - Ratio of women promoted to those eligible for promotion

### Evidence from figures and survey data (as presented)
- Figure 7 series of percentages (Female staff / Female executives): 43 52 41 52 44 55 47 56 41 52 49 59
- Figure 6 indicators include: Female public sector workforce, Female revenue administration staff, Female revenue administration executives (2019) — visualized as percentages in source.

### IV. Conclusions (Key Findings and Strategic Implications)
- Attaining greater gender equality supports governments’ social and economic development goals and their objective of collecting more tax revenue to finance vital public spending.
- Women’s full and effective participation in the workforce and decent work for all are critical to inclusive and sustainable economic growth; growth and inclusion are intertwined and cannot be decoupled (Bertay, Dordevic, and Sever 2020).
- The COVID-19 pandemic has been a major shock to growth and inclusion; women were particularly affected by job losses, income reduction, and increased childcare and elder care responsibilities.
- Managing and reforming revenue administrations through a gender lens can contribute to more inclusive and sustainable growth and should be an integral part of fiscal reform blueprints.
- Concrete ways revenue administrations can help close gender gaps and support revenue mobilization:
  - Promote gender equality within the revenue administration.
  - Expand women’s inclusion in the tax system.
  - Provide input into design of gender-sensitive tax policies in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance.
  - Ensure good cooperation between tax and customs administrations to administer gender-sensitive tax laws.
  - Review revenue administration processes to identify and address explicit or implicit bias.
- No universal solutions; each revenue administration should tailor initiatives to its context and development goals, clarifying what is within its control.

### IMF Actions to Raise Awareness and Support Implementation
- Podcasts: Gender and Revenue Administration podcast series showcasing Australia, Ecuador, Jamaica, Maldives, Romania, and Uganda.
- Capacity development: introduce gender discussions for enforcement and service program design; raise awareness about gender-sensitive tax policies and revenue administration responsibilities for implementation and taxpayer communication.
- Collaboration: with Platform for Collaboration on Tax partners; example: June 2021 workshop "The Role of Taxation in Achieving Gender Equality".
- Workforce planning: action to expand the IMF’s own revenue administration staff and experts to include more women.

### Appendix 1 — Country Examples (Selected Highlights)
- Australia (Australian Taxation Office, ATO):
  - Small business support initiatives: small business newsroom; free small business webinars.
  - Gender Equality Action Plan 2017–19 aimed for 50:50 ratio of men to women at senior levels by 2019 and increase flexible work arrangements to more than 25 percent of staff.
  - As of March 2023: women occupied 51.7 percent of middle-level executive positions and 47.7 percent of senior executive service roles.
  - Part-time arrangements: 11 percent of staff members.
  - 20 percent purchase additional leave.
  - 82 percent have a work-from-home agreement.
  - ATO’s 2024 Diversity and Inclusion Strategy priorities: address gender imbalance across similar jobs; increase awareness of what the flexible work policy means for men and carers; encourage diversity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics roles with senior executive service champions.
- Appendix Table 1 (Australia contextual statistics, as presented):
  - Women in the Labor Force, 2019 (percent): 46.6
  - Female Unemployment (percent): 46.3
  - Male Unemployment (percent): 56.5
  - Female ATO Staff, 2019 (percent): 55
  - Female ATO Executives, 2019 (percent): 7.19
  - Population of Australia, 2020 (millions): 49.09 25.73
  - Note: the table values are presented in the source as a single line: 46.646.356.555 7.1949.0925.73

- Ecuador (National Customs Service of Ecuador, SENAE):
  - Women make up nearly 50 percent of the total SENAE workforce and 85 percent of those women are in leadership and executive positions.
  - Past barriers to women applying for leadership roles: hesitancy to take on responsibility, lack of confidence, traditional societal roles, not seeing themselves as qualifying, and downplaying human-centered leadership skills.
  - SENAE actions: increase recruitment of women; identify and encourage women with leadership talent; build leadership learning focusing on women’s leadership traits; have current women leaders mentor future women leaders.

### Appendix Table 2. Contextual Statistics on Ecuador (Key contextual statistics as presented)
- Women in the Labor Force, 2019 (percent): 40.99
- Female Unemployment (percent): 7.3
- Male Unemployment (percent): 2.5
- Female SENAE Staff, 2019 (percent): 74.9
- Female SENAE Executives, 2019 (percent): 63.85
- Population of Ecuador, 2020 (millions): 17.51

*Source: tnmea2023004 - Appendix 1: Country Examples (IMF technical notes and manuals content unit).*

### Appendix 1: Country Examples

### Appendix 1: Country Examples

### Country list and page references
- Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
- Ecuador . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18
- Jamaica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19
- Maldives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .20
- Romania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21
- Uganda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

*tnmea2023004 - Appendix 1: Country Examples*

### References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

### Gender and Revenue Administration

### I. Introduction
- Gender equality is presented as an integral component of fiscal reform and a key enabler of more inclusive and sustainable economic growth (IMF 2022).
- Revenue administrations (tax and customs administrations) play a critical role in administering tax policies and can leverage their relationships with taxpayers and traders to strengthen participation of these groups in the economy.
- Effective and efficient tax collection allows governments to finance spending that supports women and girls: water, sanitation, social protection programs (such as maternal and parental leave, paid childcare), targeted social transfers, health, education, public sector employment expenditure that helps close seniority and wage gaps, and digitalization.
- Purpose of the technical note: provide a practical overview of interactions between revenue administrations and gender equality, including:
  - how revenue administrations can apply a gender lens when administering tax or trade laws to reduce barriers to women's employment, entrepreneurship, and trade;
  - how revenue administrations can develop gender-balanced and inclusive workforces with policies and procedures that ensure equal employment opportunities.
- Structure: Section II covers gender equality as an enabler; Section III examines revenue administrations’ contributions; Section IV offers practical considerations; Appendix 1 provides country examples.

### II. Gender Equality as an Enabler for Social and Economic Empowerment
- Definition and rationale
  - Gender equality addresses the right to freedom from bias or favoritism; requires treating people of all genders fairly and justly.
  - Achieving greater gender equality may require proactive government steps to ensure policy and decision making is gender sensitive and that women are adequately represented in decision making.
- Evidence on economic gains
  - Study cited: female labor force participation in Canada is positively associated with labor productivity growth leading to gains in real GDP (Petersson, Mariscal, and Ishi 2017).
  - Dabla-Norris and Kochhar (2019) estimate: for countries with low levels of gender equality, “closing the gender gap in employment could increase GDP by an average of 35 percent—of which 7–8 percentage points are productivity gains due to gender diversity” (page 9).
- Role of gender-sensitive tax policies
  - Implementing gender-sensitive tax policies is among the actions required to increase GDP through greater gender equality.
  - Given COVID-19 and its negative effect on women and girls (Tang and others 2021), gender-sensitive tax policies are emphasized as more crucial than ever.
- Role of revenue administrations
  - Revenue administrations can help boost women’s economic participation and mobilize revenue to finance gender-sensitive social and economic development programs.
  - Outcome depends on effective administration of gender-sensitive tax systems and ability to mobilize revenue to support more equitable public expenditure.

### Connecting Gender Equality and Revenue Administration
- Revenue administrations can support gender equality by:
  - effectively delivering programs and services;
  - building databases and using data that take gender into account (including gender-specific data disaggregated by sole trader and by women-led small, medium, and large businesses);
  - promoting women within their organizations.
- Organizational effectiveness and productive interaction with taxpayers and traders are central:
  - Organizational effectiveness: how the revenue administration operates internally.
  - Productive interaction: design, development, and delivery of products, services, and interventions to engage taxpayers and traders to facilitate compliance.
- Women revenue administration leaders can act as role models and influence organizational interactions with women entrepreneurs and women taxpayers.

### III. How Revenue Administrations Contribute to Gender Equality
- Two primary levers:
  - Administering gender-sensitive tax laws effectively and applying a gender lens when administering tax and trade laws to reduce barriers to women’s employment, entrepreneurship, and trade.
  - Building a gender-balanced and inclusive workforce with policies and procedures that ensure equal employment opportunities.
- Organizational benefits
  - A diverse, representative workforce can enhance organizational performance and delivery and improve workplace culture (Georgieva and Levonian 2020).
  - Profiling as a gender-balanced and inclusive employer can help attract and retain a diverse, more skilled workforce and build trust with taxpayers.
  - Addressing compliance needs of women taxpayers and traders may reduce cost of collection and compliance costs for women, potentially increasing voluntary compliance.
    - Example cost-of-collection calculation referenced: an administration with costs of $8 million that collects a total of $10 million in taxes has a cost of collection of 0.8 ($8 million/$10 million).

- Administering gender-sensitive tax laws and applying a gender lens
  - Governments may adopt gender-sensitive tax laws; these require unbiased and effective administration (example: refundable childcare credits may be claimed by a family’s lowest secondary earner, often a woman; heavy compliance actions may discourage claims and negate benefits).
  - Revenue administrations routinely analyze data to understand the taxpaying population and segment taxpayers/traders for tailored compliance treatments.
  - Recommendation: compile data disaggregated by gender to identify women taxpayers and traders and ensure compliance profiles are not overlooked.
    - Empirical findings cited:
      - Uganda study suggests women are more compliant than men regarding at least some tax obligations (Kangave, Waiswa, and Sebaggala 2021).
      - Study using data from Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, and the United Kingdom over a 20-year period reveals a higher willingness to comply among women (Torgler and Valev 2010).
  - Women may be overrepresented in sectors such as early childhood education, health, beauty, and hospitality; services tailored to those sectors may be required.
  - In many low-income countries, women microentrepreneurs dominate the informal sector; targeted approaches can help bring them into the formal sector and link future tax payments to benefits from government programs.
  - Women are often underrepresented in community business organizations that provide feedback to revenue administrations; working to increase female membership in those organizations can improve policy responsiveness.

- Three key areas for better engaging women taxpayers and traders:
  1. Understanding barriers restricting women from accessing systems.
  2. Tailoring services and products for women taxpayers and traders.
  3. Reducing enforcement bias where women may be unconsciously targeted for compliance actions.

- Understanding barriers restricting women’s economic participation (selected barriers and statistics preserved)
  - Low levels of literacy, including financial, tax, and digital literacy:
    - Literacy gender gaps cited: South Asia (17.2 percent), sub-Saharan Africa (14.6 percent), Middle East and North Africa (13.6 percent) (Wadhwa 2019).
    - Example: Of 2,000 people in Rwanda who took a quiz on basic tax facts, less than 40 percent knew what tax type they were registered for; best result was only 6 out of 20 questions answered correctly (International Centre for Tax & Development 2021).
  - Complex tax and trade policy:
    - Complexity raises compliance costs and is particularly difficult for female entrepreneurs in developing economies (World Bank and World Trade Organization 2020).
  - Tax systems may explicitly or implicitly disadvantage women:
    - Joint income assessment can reduce tax benefits for a woman who earns less than her husband.
    - Flat rate fees and taxes can result in women paying disproportionately more of their income in taxes because they earn less.
    - Small and microbusinesses often experience higher tax burdens than larger firms; many women in developing countries are low-income earners or owners of small businesses who may lack access to tax intermediaries.
  - Lack of access to credit or a bank account:
    - In low- and middle-income economies, men are 9 percentage points more likely to have an account at a financial institution (Hess and others 2021).
  - Limited access to technology and mobile and smartphones:
    - Figure 2 (described) shows women frequently have less access to mobile phones and the internet than men; digital access is important as administrations intensify digital engagement.
    - Revenue administrations should work with telecommunications and internet providers to ensure women have equal access to digital means for tax information, declarations, payments, and refunds.

- Tailoring services and products for women taxpayers
  - Services and products should be tailored to taxpayer segments for core obligations: registration, filing and payment, reporting, and dispute resolution.
    - Examples: large taxpayers may be required to file and pay electronically; small taxpayers may be permitted paper returns; large taxpayers may receive one-to-one management.
  - Tailoring for women means administering laws with the specific needs of women considered.
    - Example: Pakistan’s Federal Board of Revenue established a special desk to address grievances and concerns of women entrepreneurs and to help them file tax returns (Business Recorder 2022).
  - Promoting financial literacy:
    - Women’s financial inclusion is a powerful lever for advancing gender equality (Cihak and Sahay 2020).
    - Revenue administrations can support entrepreneurship and inclusion through tax awareness sessions, user-friendly automation, and collaboration with counterparts to eliminate barriers to women obtaining bank accounts (Hendriks 2019).

*Source: IMF staff, “Gender and Revenue Administration,” Technical Notes and Manuals.*

### 1. Use, by Economic Groupings2. Use, by Region

### 1. Use, by Economic Groupings2. Use, by Region

### Collecting and analyzing gender-disaggregated data
- Revenue administrations should collect and analyze data disaggregated by gender, including:
  - Exploring whether existing databases already contain gender-disaggregated data.
  - Collecting new data from revenue administrations and other agencies.
  - Designing new data-collection activities (for example, staff and taxpayer engagement surveys) that include gender perspectives.

### Communication products and services targeted to women taxpayers and traders
- Design communication products and services specifically for women taxpayers and traders and their industry groups’ needs:
  - Provide education and information in nontechnical language, through various channels, and in places easily accessible to different types of women taxpayers and traders.
  - Develop tax and trade business modules for businesses predominately owned by women (often in small-business service sectors such as health care and beauty, welfare, childcare, and hospitality).
  - Develop relationships with local women community advocates or leaders; provide them with training to answer frequently asked questions and involve them in community engagements.
  - Example: Jamaica Customs Agency staff collaborate with other border-related agencies to enable customers to access information from all agencies at one time and from one source.
  - Where a tax intermediary body exists (for example, tax accountants), consider establishing a “women and tax” operational group to obtain regular input.
- Objective: use many channels to connect with women, acknowledging constraints of technology, mobility, and finance.

### Reducing compliance and enforcement bias
- Review administrative approaches to identify and remove explicit or implicit gender bias, including subtleties of language and audit case selection criteria.
  - Example: In the United States, the Earned Income Tax Credit supports low-income women and families and has boosted labor force participation among single mothers; however, claimants are audited more frequently, creating an additional burden on low-income women who claim it (Kleiman, Matsui, and Mitchell 2019). A review of administration could reveal that the audit burden undermines the credit’s effectiveness.
- Recognize that gender-neutral intentions may be gender blind (United Nations 2017).
  - Policies and practices that are gender-neutral in intention can affect men and women differently due to different socioeconomic realities (for example, restricting service hours to regular business hours may disadvantage women with childcare responsibilities).
- Consider gender in setting case allocation priorities for audit and enforcement:
  - Assigning a single officer of one gender to audit or investigate a taxpayer of another gender, or a sector predominantly of another gender, can introduce bias or be inappropriate in some cultural settings.

### Building a gender-balanced and inclusive revenue administration workforce
- Rationale and principles:
  - A gender-balanced and inclusive workforce should reflect the nature and diversity of the community served.
  - Equal employment opportunity should be upheld; many countries use legislation to address workplace discrimination and require public sector agencies to adopt policies and practices against discrimination.
  - If significant gender imbalance exists (either women or men underrepresented), prerecruitment training and changes to recruitment, staff development, and promotion practices may be necessary.
- Empirical findings from the International Survey on Revenue Administration and related sources:
  - On average, women make up 52 percent of tax administrations’ staffs but occupy only 40 percent of executive positions.
  - Customs administrations employ fewer women than men:
    - Women make up 37 percent of the global customs workforce.
    - Women occupy 26 percent in senior management positions in customs.
    - 16 percent of heads of customs administrations are women.
  - Gender balance varies by income level:
    - Women make up approximately 38 percent of the revenue administration workforce in low-income developing countries.
    - Women make up 61 percent of the revenue administration workforce in advanced economies.
    - In revenue administration executive roles: 28 percent of executives are female in low-income developing countries, compared with 46 percent in advanced economies.
  - Regional patterns:
    - In all regions except the Americas, women are underrepresented among executives.
    - Women are typically clustered in lower levels of the administration and mostly involved in “service”-type roles.
    - Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and the Caribbean have a higher proportion of female executives compared with other regions.
  - Country example:
    - Rwanda Revenue Authority, fiscal year 2019/20: women employees represented 39.7 percent of the total workforce; males represented 60.3 percent of the total workforce.
- Implications:
  - Regions with higher incomes typically have bigger service sectors, higher overall female labor force participation, and a higher percentage of female executives, correlating with revenue administration staff by gender.

*Source: IMF technical notes and manuals content unit tnmea2023004 - 1. Use, by Economic Groupings2. Use, by Region*

### 6. Latin America and the Caribbean

### 6. Latin America and the Caribbean

### Initiatives to Help Build a Gender-Balanced and Inclusive Workforce
- Leadership and gender-responsive human resources policies have the greatest effect on building a balanced and inclusive workforce.
- Research: investing in gender diversity yields higher dividends in organizational excellence—through leadership, direction, accountability, and values—relative to nondiverse companies.
- Gender-responsive policies should be broad based: gender equity planning, flexible work arrangements, career development, talent management, and women-friendly workplaces.
- Data (pre- and post-COVID-19): flexible work arrangements, particularly flexible working hours and accommodation of regular remote working, are associated with higher proportions of female staff members and higher proportions of female executives.
- Implementing key performance indicators to monitor gender balance is critical because what gets measured often determines what gets done.

### Developing a Gender-Balanced and Inclusive Revenue Administration Workforce (Policy Recommendations)
- Develop partnerships with educational institutions to promote women’s education in areas of revenue administration needs (taxation, financial management and accounting, computer and behavioral sciences, analytics).
- Plan for gender equality and recruit women with a competitive level of education and experience:
  - Set proactive, organization-wide targets in the strategic business plan with relevant key performance indicators.
  - Collect data disaggregated by gender to monitor and report performance.
- Implement flexible working arrangements:
  - Working remotely where possible, part time, flexible hours or days, flextime, different leave arrangements, and job sharing.
  - Include parental leave, preferably paid parental leave for both women and men.
- Develop women-friendly workplace facilities:
  - Subsidized or free childcare facilities; access to sanitation products and safe, clean bathrooms; workplace safety policies protecting women from harassment; clothing allowances or uniforms.
- Make arrangements for safe transport and work with other government authorities to prioritize safety of public transport (UN Women 2021).
- Provide continuing career development during career breaks:
  - Tailor learning and development to employees on leave; example: Canada Revenue Agency supports employee learning and development for employees on certain types of leave (CRA 2022).
- Manage talent:
  - Identify female staff with high potential and provide supportive and intensive development programs, leadership and executive training programs (designed for women and by women and men).
- Develop and implement diversity and inclusion initiatives:
  - Appoint female candidates where appropriate; ensure qualified women on shortlists; actively appoint more women to decision-making roles; consider targets to reverse past inequality (OECD 2022).
- Spotlight women leaders as role models:
  - Encourage women leaders to share leadership journeys, mentor, and support aspiring women leaders (IMF 2021c).
- Encourage women to develop broader networks:
  - Use forums and networks such as OECD Forum on Tax Administration’s Gender Balance Network, OECD’s Women Leaders in Tax Transparency Pilot Programme, African Tax Administration Forum Women in Tax Network.
- Promote a culture of gender equality:
  - Senior leaders must visibly lead change, highlight benefits of diversity, and call out unacceptable behavior and attitudes.
  - Examples: Jamaica—revenue administrations recognized for promoting gender equality attract scarce skills; Uganda Revenue Authority—high proportion of female employees associated with enhanced overall performance (Mwondha and others 2018).

### Potential Key Performance Indicators for a Gender-Balanced and Inclusive Workforce
- Proportion of women in each function or business area
- Number of women at each level of management
- Women as a percentage of new recruits
- Pay levels (including pay gaps)
- Attrition rates for both men and women
- Ratio of women promoted to those eligible for promotion

### Lessons from International Experience
- Common themes from senior leaders’ experiences (podcast series):
  - Deliberate long-term career planning: clear goals and mixed private/public sector experience.
  - Lifelong learning: formal education as a critical enabler and leveler.
  - Family friendly and flexible work practices: remote working, generous (and paid) maternity and paternity leave, results-based leadership.
  - Employee upskilling for modern tax administration and increased use of technology and automation.
  - Performance management: individual development planning, coaching, and mentoring.
  - Proactive promotion of women into different areas of work and leadership.

### Evidence from Figures and Survey Data (as presented)
- Figure 7 series of percentages (Female staff / Female executives): 43 52 41 52 44 55 47 56 41 52 49 59
- Figure 6 indicators include: Female public sector workforce, Female revenue administration staff, Female revenue administration executives (2019) — visualized as percentages in the source.

### IV. Conclusions (Key Findings and Strategic Implications)
- Attaining greater gender equality supports governments’ social and economic development goals and their objective of collecting more tax revenue to finance vital public spending.
- Women’s full and effective participation in the workforce and decent work for all are critical to inclusive and sustainable economic growth; growth and inclusion are intertwined and cannot be decoupled (Bertay, Dordevic, and Sever 2020).
- The COVID-19 pandemic has been a major shock to growth and inclusion; women were particularly affected by job losses, income reduction, and increased childcare and elder care responsibilities.
- Managing and reforming revenue administrations through a gender lens can contribute to more inclusive and sustainable growth and should be an integral part of fiscal reform blueprints.
- Concrete ways revenue administrations can help close gender gaps and support revenue mobilization:
  - Promote gender equality within the revenue administration.
  - Expand women’s inclusion in the tax system.
  - Provide input into design of gender-sensitive tax policies in cooperation with the Ministry of Finance.
  - Ensure good cooperation between tax and customs administrations to administer gender-sensitive tax laws.
  - Review revenue administration processes to identify and address explicit or implicit bias.
- No universal solutions; each revenue administration should tailor initiatives to its context and development goals, clarifying what is within its control.

### IMF Actions to Raise Awareness and Support Implementation
- Podcasts: Gender and Revenue Administration podcast series showcasing Australia, Ecuador, Jamaica, Maldives, Romania, and Uganda.
- Capacity development: introduce gender discussions for enforcement and service program design; raise awareness about gender-sensitive tax policies and revenue administration responsibilities for implementation and taxpayer communication.
- Collaboration: with Platform for Collaboration on Tax partners; example: June 2021 workshop "The Role of Taxation in Achieving Gender Equality".
- Workforce planning: action to expand the IMF’s own revenue administration staff and experts to include more women.

### Appendix 1 — Country Examples (Selected Highlights)
- Australia (Australian Taxation Office, ATO):
  - Small business support initiatives: small business newsroom; free small business webinars.
  - Gender Equality Action Plan 2017–19 aimed for 50:50 ratio of men to women at senior levels by 2019 and increase flexible work arrangements to more than 25 percent of staff.
  - As of March 2023: women occupied 51.7 percent of middle-level executive positions and 47.7 percent of senior executive service roles.
  - Part-time arrangements: 11 percent of staff members.
  - 20 percent purchase additional leave.
  - 82 percent have a work-from-home agreement.
  - ATO’s 2024 Diversity and Inclusion Strategy priorities: address gender imbalance across similar jobs; increase awareness of what the flexible work policy means for men and carers; encourage diversity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics roles with senior executive service champions.
- Appendix Table 1 (Australia contextual statistics, as presented):
  - Women in the Labor Force, 2019 (percent): 46.6
  - Female Unemployment (percent): 46.3
  - Male Unemployment (percent): 56.5
  - Female ATO Staff, 2019 (percent): 55
  - Female ATO Executives, 2019 (percent): 7.19
  - Population of Australia, 2020 (millions): 49.09 25.73
  - Note: the table values are presented in the source as a single line: 46.646.356.555 7.1949.0925.73
- Ecuador (National Customs Service of Ecuador, SENAE):
  - Women make up nearly 50 percent of the total SENAE workforce and 85 percent of those women are in leadership and executive positions.
  - Past barriers to women applying for leadership roles included hesitancy to take on responsibility, lack of confidence, traditional societal roles, not seeing themselves as qualifying, and downplaying human-centered leadership skills.
  - SENAE actions: increase recruitment of women; identify and encourage women with leadership talent; build leadership learning focusing on women’s leadership traits; have current women leaders mentor future women leaders.

*Source: tnmea2023004 - 6. Latin America and the Caribbean (IMF PDF chapter).*

### Appendix Table 2. Contextual Statistics on Ecuador

### Appendix Table 2. Contextual Statistics on Ecuador

### Key contextual statistics (as presented)
- Women in the Labor Force, 2019 (percent): 40.99
- Female Unemployment (percent): 7.3
- Male Unemployment (percent): 2.5
- Female SENAE Staff, 2019 (percent): 74.9
- Female SENAE Executives, 2019 (percent): 63.85
- Population of Ecuador, 2020 (millions): 17.51

### Source and note
*Source: Based on the 2020 International Survey on Revenue Administration (https://data.rafit.org), the IMF’s World Economic Outlook database, and the International Labour Organization's estimates.*

*Note: SENAE = Servicio Nacional de Aduana del Ecuador (National Customs Service of Ecuador).*

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_Source: https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/tnm/2023/english/tnmea2023004.pdf_