Do you pay your taxes?

Do you pay your taxes? It is a simple question. It deserves an honest answer. Many of us hesitate. We calculate. We think about what we can deduct, what we can hide, what we can avoid. Why do people evade taxes? Because it saves money. Because the system feels unfair. Because everyone else seems to be doing it. Because we do not see where our money goes.

I talked to some taxpayers. This is what citizens in Kampala told me. These could be voices from most cities in Africa. 

"When I hear the word taxes, I feel anger. I feel like the government is stealing from me. Robbing me. Harassing me for money I worked hard to earn. And I do not know why."

"Look at this road. When it rains, we swim. Water reaches our necks. This is where my taxes go?"

"I am fifty years old. I have never accessed free healthcare in my life. Not once."

"School fees? Has government ever paid for me or my children? Never. I have never been to a government hospital. Most people I know self-medicate. We buy drugs over the counter. We only seek formal healthcare when we are desperate, and then we go to private clinics we can afford."

"My parents paid a building fee every school term. I pay one for my children. I pay for my water. I pay for my electricity. I pay for garbage collection. We have collective security in our residential area. All tenants pay to ensure our own safety."

"So tell me. What services? Where does our money go?"

These are honest questions. They deserve honest answers. This article is about tax justice, and why it is fundamentally a women's rights issue. But it starts with these voices. Your frustration. Your lived experience. Because until we understand why taxes feel like theft, we cannot build a system that feels like contribution.

What are taxes supposed to be?

Taxes are the price of civilisation. This is not my phrase. It belongs to a 19th-century American judge, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. He understood something fundamental. We pay taxes not because we are forced to, but because we want to live in a society that functions.

In theory, taxation is the way a nation pools its resources to provide for everyone. It pays for roads, schools, hospitals, sanitation, security, and the countless services that make daily life possible. When you pay tax, you are contributing to the common pot from which everyone draws. It is a collective act of mutual support.

But that is the theory. The practice feels different. Have you seen that theory become reality in your life? Have you experienced the services your taxes are meant to provide? If not, you are not alone.

Broken promises, broken trust

If you have never entered a government hospital, if you have never received free healthcare, if you pay for water, electricity, garbage, and security out of your own pocket, if the road in front of your house floods every rainy season, then the theory means nothing. You are not experiencing civilisation. You are experiencing extraction.

This is the broken social contract. The failure to link tax payments to tangible services erodes trust. It makes people cynical. It makes evasion feel like self-defence. And it particularly harms women, because women rely more on public services. When those services fail, women suffer most.

If there is no government clinic, who walks further or goes without care? If there is no safe water, who carries it? If schools charge fees she cannot pay, who stays home? If the state cannot provide security, who is more vulnerable to violence? The failure of the social contract is not abstract. It is carried in women's bodies and on women's backs.

Structurally blind tax policies

The tax system itself is not neutral. It is designed in ways that hurt women, even when it looks fair on paper. Have you ever wondered why your small business struggles despite paying taxes? Have you noticed that some taxes seem to target you specifically?

Consider presumptive tax. Many countries tax small businesses based on turnover, not profit. This is supposed to simplify things for informal traders. But female-dominated businesses often have thin profit margins. Taxing turnover means paying tax even when you made no money. You pay from capital. You pay from food money. It punishes the smallest, most vulnerable businesses. Does this sound familiar?

Consider VAT on menstrual products. This is not just a tax. It is a reproductive tax. It directly discriminates against women by taxing a biological necessity that men do not face. Some countries have removed this tax after years of campaigning. Many have not. The message is clear. Do you think being a woman should cost extra?

Consider taxes on cooking fuel. Women do most of the cooking. They bear the cost of fuel. When governments tax kerosene, charcoal, or cooking gas, they are taxing women's daily labour. They are taxing survival. Who bears that burden in your home?

The unsafe enforcement environment

Even when women try to comply, the system can violate them. But it does not always happen in an office. Enforcement is field-based. Tax officials come to you. To your business. Your shop. Your saloon. Your food kiosk.

Picture this. An official arrives. You have not paid. He gives you the choice. Pay up fully, right now, or I seal your business. You plead. You do not have the money. Can you pay later? Give me a week. A month. The official shakes his head. No. It is now.

Then the offer comes. Quietly. Give me something. A cut of what you owe. I will let you off. Or worse. Give me sex. I will make the problem go away.

You pay the tax. You had to. But you also pay something else. Your body. Your dignity. The official walks away. The tax goes to government. Your integrity stays on that floor. Stripped by the person sent to collect what you owe.

This is real. It is documented. Women traders, market vendors, small business owners across Africa report being pressured, groped, threatened for sexual favours in exchange for reduced assessments or clearance. It happens because women are visible, vulnerable, and unprotected. It happens because enforcement is a moment of raw power, and power without accountability preys on the powerless.

This is not tax administration. It is extortion with a government badge. It is a severe violation of the right to safe and dignified livelihoods. The tax system becomes a site of gendered violence. Should anyone have to risk their safety to pay what they owe?

I use 'he' intentionally. Most tax collectors are male. Women are also capable of abuse, but the reported cases from my research and others name men. So the pronoun is deliberate. It reflects the reality documented by those who live it.

The time tax

Women have an overwhelming work burden. They do the unpaid care work: cooking, cleaning, childcare, elder care, fetching water, collecting firewood. They do the paid work: farming, trading, formal employment. They do the community work: attending meetings, organising events, supporting neighbours.

Then we add tax compliance. Standing in long lines. Traveling to distant offices. Filling complicated forms. Providing documents that may not exist. For informal workers, compliance can take hours or days. Hours that are already stretched. Days that could be used for earning or resting.

This is the time tax. It is unpaid labour demanded by the state. It constrains women's economic potential. It reinforces inequality. The system assumes you have time to spare. Do you? Does any woman you know?

Different women, different burdens

Tax affects women differently depending on their circumstances. A rural woman who farms and trades in the informal economy faces different challenges than a professional woman in the city. A young woman seeking her first job faces different barriers than an older woman caring for grandchildren.

Informal workers, who are disproportionately women, often fall outside tax systems entirely. They do not benefit from tax allowances or credits. They do not have employers withholding tax. They may pay consumption taxes on everything they buy, but they receive little in return because they cannot access the public services that taxes fund.

Rural women may lack access to banks, to identification documents, to information about their rights and obligations. Tax systems designed for formal, urban workers leave them behind.

Women with disabilities face additional barriers. They may need specialised services that are expensive and underfunded. They may face discrimination in employment that limits their income. Tax systems that do not account for disability-related expenses are not neutral. They are unjust.

Does your tax system see you? Does it account for your reality?

Why do people evade taxes?

People evade taxes for many reasons. Some are selfish. They want to keep their money. Some are strategic. They see others getting away with it and feel foolish for paying. Some are angry. They do not trust the government to spend their money wisely.

Research suggests that attitudes toward taxation are shaped more by values and ideology than by narrow self-interest. People who believe in government, who trust institutions, who feel connected to their society, are more willing to pay. People who feel alienated, who see corruption, who believe the system is rigged, are more likely to evade.

When wealthy individuals and corporations avoid taxes through complex legal schemes, it sends a message. The system is for the little people. The rules do not apply to those with power and money. This erodes trust. It makes ordinary people question why they should pay.

Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever wondered why you should pay when the wealthy do not?

What does government use taxes for?

This is the question that underlies all others. If we do not see where our money goes, we resent paying. If we see it funding things we value, we are more willing.

Government uses taxes for many things. It builds and maintains infrastructure. It funds education. It provides healthcare. It supports the vulnerable. It ensures safety. It protects the environment.

But if you have never experienced any of this, the list is abstract. Your reality is different. Your reality is paying for everything yourself and still being asked for more.

So where does the money go? Have you ever been shown? Have you ever seen a breakdown? Have you ever been invited to see how your contribution built something you can use?

This is the transparency gap. Citizens do not know. Governments do not tell. The social contract breaks.

Tax as a tool for change

Taxation is not just about raising revenue. It is about shaping society. Progressive taxes can reduce inequality. They can fund social protection. They can transform the conditions that perpetuate poverty and gender injustice.

What if your taxes built a clinic you could actually use? What if they paved the road that floods every year? What if they paid for a teacher in your child's school? What if they funded a grant for your business?

These are not impossible dreams. They are what taxes are supposed to do. The question is not whether taxes can work. The question is whether we will demand that they do.

What you can do

Tax justice begins with awareness. It begins with asking questions. It begins with refusing to accept that this is just how things are.

Do you know how your country's tax system works? Do you know who pays what rates? Do you know where the money goes? Do you know which services are funded, and which are starved?

Find out. Ask. Demand transparency.

Do you pay your taxes? If you do, recognise it as contribution, not just cost. But also demand to see what your contribution builds. If you do not pay, ask why. Is it because you have no income? Because you work informally? Because you have found ways to avoid? Be honest with yourself.

Do you benefit from public services? Have you used a public road today? A public school? A public hospital? A public library? A public park? If you have, you have drawn from the common pot. Someone else's taxes helped pay for that. Yours should too.

Do you vote? Tax policy is set by governments. Governments are chosen by voters. If you want different tax policies, vote for them. Organise for them. Demand them. Ask candidates: What will you do to make taxes fair? What will you do to show us where our money goes?

Do you speak up? When you see injustice, say something. When you hear someone boasting about tax evasion, challenge them. When you read about corporate tax avoidance, share the story. When you meet a policymaker, ask about their commitment to tax justice.

Do you organise? Join with others. Women's groups, traders associations, community organisations. Collective voice is louder. Collective action is stronger. When we demand together, they listen.

The questions that remain

I return to where we started. Do you pay your taxes? But now we have more questions.

Do you know where your money goes? Have you ever been shown?

Do you feel the system is fair? Does it treat you with dignity?

Do you see your taxes building the world you want to live in? Roads you can use? Clinics you can visit? Schools your children can attend? Security you can trust?

If the answer is no, the problem is not you. The problem is the system. The answer is not to stop paying. The answer is to change the system. To demand that our contributions build the world we need. To organise, to advocate, to vote, to speak until the system listens.

Tax justice is women's rights. Fiscal policy is feminist politics. The broken social contract can be repaired. But only if we demand it. Only if we refuse to accept that this is just how things are.

The work is here. The question is whether you will be part of it.

This article started with voices from Kampala. Their questions are honest. They deserve answers that go deeper. Over the coming weeks, I will publish a series that walks through the architecture of tax justice—why systems are designed this way, who benefits, and what we can do about it. The first installment asks: Who holds power over your taxes?