Illicit Financial Flows and Gender What is the impact of gender on IFF’s Financial Transparency Conference October Jakarta

Objectives 1.What is the link between tax and IFF’s ? 2.Women as Taxpayers 3.Impact of IFF’s on women Draft - July 15, 2015

Why are taxes important Own source revenues Service delivery Independence in financial policy development

Women as tax payers Direct vs Indirect tax Across low-income countries, about two-thirds of tax revenue is raised through indirect taxes. In contrast, across high-income countries, indirect taxes account for only about one-third of tax revenue, with the remaining two-thirds coming from direct taxes. In low-income countries, personal income tax accounts for just over a quarter of tax revenue, while in high- income countries, it accounts for over a third of tax revenue. This means that developing counties raise more revenue from taxing consumption than taxing income and wealth. Draft - July 15, 2015

What does this mean for women? Failure to enforce corporate tax (which is an indirect tax) means that governments collect less revenue and therefore forced to Cut expenditure Raise the budget deficit through increasing VAT. Commodity taxing in the form of VAT and other indirect taxes increases the cost of these very basic products like cooking oil, sanitary towels, maize, flour, etc Draft - July 15, 2015

IFF’s and Development Draft - July 15, 2015

Recommendations Draft - July 15, 2015 UN Tax body or international mechanism Budget presentation Re-assessment of budget, exemptions, waivers in terms of lost revenue for potential services and public goods Respect for human rights treaties