On 26 March 2026 the UN Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters discussed the workstreams on tax and gender. The relevant subcommittee presented its planned workstreams for discussion and approval.
A workstream would take an overview of the issue of tax and gender, mapping existing research on the issues. This would aim to determine the situations where tax policy is the appropriate tool. The work would take a broad view of tax and gender in employment, small business, the information economy and in the work of the tax administration.
A second workstream would examine tax policy and the informal economy from a gender perspective, researching the different gender impacts of different tax policies. Women play a large part in the informal economy, so the taxation of the informal economy could be used to promote wellbeing of women. Approaches could be designed to encourage women to enter the formal economy.
A third workstream would look at a toolkit on incorporating a gender perspective into tax administration work. This would look at the effect of gender on recruitment and promotion within the tax administration. There would also be an analysis of taxpayer services and relations. Data collection and analysis by the tax administration could be improved to extract more information on the taxation of women, by disaggregation where appropriate.
A fourth workstream would consider the implications of tax data on gender for adequate policy design. A more effective tax policy could be supported by gender sensitive policies. Participants noted that there are existing studies on women in the labour market, for example in Latin America. Also, there are statistics from Mexico and Colombia on the role played by women in the economy and labour. These could be used to inform fiscal policies to support women in formal employment.
The fifth workstream would consider gender and international tax. International tax measures may have a role in shaping gender outcomes. A gender perspective could be incorporated into international tax cooperation. Gender may impact international tax in relation to work on the digital economy and the UN Model, for example. Measures taken by countries can on tax cooperation can impact women in adverse ways, for example in VAT or measures affecting small businesses.
