Waging wars

By Esther A.Armah

Tax isn’t sexy.

Nobody dreams of taxes. You do not salivate imagining what you might do to taxes or what they might do to you. But, tax matters. And a three day workshop on tax and women in Africa led by the International Centre for Tax and Development revealed that women bear the burden of a nation’s taxes. These taxpayers need relief, a break, some transparency and equity.

Might they actually get it? The NDC tout themselves as the party where women flourish. The NPP cast themselves as safe space for women to grow, build and secure a brighter future. Their rhetoric sheds no light on the exact nature of the tax breaks they may be willing to offer women entrepreneurs.

And policies, not promises, are needed. The trouble with political party promises is they are like being in an abusive relationship. The one doing the abusing promises to stop, if the other promises not to leave. The promise is short lived and the person who stayed is short changed. In other words, the promise to deliver change is rarely met with follow up action. Ghana’s women entrepreneurs deserve better than to be shortchanged. These entrepreneurs are part of the engine that allows this economy to stand.

Here’s the deal. Taxes are not fairly divided among Ghanaians. This is hardly a revelation. Fairness and taxes is like kenkey and hot apple pie – they simply do not go together. But the work shop led by the International Centre for Tax and Development also held up comparative examples of change across Africa. They cited Kenya as an example of tax relief for women, and the subsequent tax incentives small business enjoy. Tax relief is one issue.

Tax collection is another. The conference offered lessons of revenue collection agencies of African countries including Tanzania, Uganda, Senegal and Malawi as examples where women apparently take a front seat in tax administration and collection. That position helps with compliance and transparency. Ghana is invited to do the same.

The Ghana Revenue Authority (theGRA) claimed it is considering doing the same. Will Ghana’s government – whichever party wins the upcoming election – heed that call?

The call to invite Ghana to reimagine a tax system that centralizes women and women entrepreneurs is based on new research. It highlights the shrinking coffers from funding and donor support to so-called developing countries. That loss requires a boost from another element of the economy. And here come women entrepreneurs and a reimagined tax system to assist such a boost.

The research revealed women engage in the majority of unpaid care work such as caring for children, fetching water, performing household chores – despite that, they pay the same taxes as salary holding men. Women are also a huge part of what Ghana calls the ‘informal sector’. They are the small businesses employing people all over this country.

Millions of these women are also mothers. And here is the irony. We are a society that reveres mothers. That same society is screwing mothers into the ground with unfair taxes that are crippling families, entrepreneurial spirit and futures. We are a nation that expects women, mothers to take care of it. In that case, we need to do a much better job of taking care of women. And that means, changing taxes.

Tax is not an equal opportunity burden carried fairly on the backs of all Ghanaians. Not at all.

Ghana must stop thinking of women as a nation unto itself, disconnected, separate and unequal as opposed to citizens with a crucial role in the success of this country.

Play the numbers game with me for a minute. 51% of Ghana’s population is women. Less than 0.03% of the GDP is spent on Ministries focusing on women’s rights and empowerment, according to research by Action Aid on developing countries.

From Ghana to the US. Tax is also getting a major shakeup there by America’s new President elect, Donald Trump. The brunt of that shake up will be carried by single mothers. There, they are eliminating the head of household designation. That means single mothers have to file taxes as single people. That single change increases their taxes, despite a promise to cut tax for everyone.

In Ghana, there is a separation of Church and State. In tax there is no such separation. Men and women pay the same taxes despite not doing the same work, for the same money or with the same status.

Right now, Ghana’s political parties are waging wars of words in their bid for political power. There is accusation and counter accusation. The media is the middle man reporting each salvo as it is launched, and recording each counter punch. Meanwhile women’s wages face a war of their own – a fight for equity, for recognition of the invaluable contribution made to a nation. Women function and fail but cannot flourish under the weight of such wars that do not manifest in policy that takes account of their circumstance.

Mothers, Single mothers in Ghana or America, women entrepreneurs are all facing inequity in a tax system that punishes their gender and status even as it profits from their labour.

Political party promises hold no profit. And profit is still the bottom line.

Women’s bottom line needs attention, revolution and resolution.