What is the True Meaning of Gender Equality in Personal Income Taxation? Substantive Equality and Family-Related Tax Provisions

Abstract

Adopting a philosophical perspective, this article examines the implications of both formal and substantive gender equality for the design of a gender-responsive personal income tax (PIT) system. Analysing several family-related PIT provisions, this article discusses how these PIT provisions could still create structural inequalities by producing indirect gender discrimination. The article demonstrates that a formal approach to gender equality is insufficient for remedying the structural disadvantages women face by tax systems. Formal equality does not sufficiently recognise the problem of indirect gender discrimination in taxation. Substantive interpretations of gender equality, on the other hand, counteract both structural disadvantages and gendered role divisions in PIT systems. Accordingly, substantive gender equality rejects tax provisions that produce severe indirect gender discrimination and therefore provides a more pervasive approach to equality than formal interpretations do.