Tax is not maths. It is power
- Nite Tanzarn
- 3 days ago
- 12 min read
A Feminist's Guide to Who Pays, Who Benefits, and Who Decides
This article is for anyone who has ever wondered: where does our money go? Why does the system feel rigged? What is tax justice, and why should I care? It lays the foundation for the "Tax Justice through a Feminist Lens" series. If you are new to these ideas, start here.
The series spotlights women. Not because they are the only ones the system fails, but because their experience exposes tax injustice most clearly. Men are also excluded, also invisible. But women's lives—shaped by unpaid care work, informal employment, and regressive tax burdens—reveal the design flaws in ways nothing else can. When we understand how tax systems fail women, we understand how they fail everyone. The woman in Kampala is our starting point. Her question is the question.
A simple question
A woman in Kampala asked me: "I pay for everything myself. Water, electricity, garbage, security. So tell me. Where does our money go?"
She pays taxes. Every day. VAT on everything she buys. Market fees every morning. Levies on cooking fuel. She pays.
She has never accessed free healthcare. Never received a government grant. Never seen her taxes build anything she can use.
Her question is simple. The answer is not.
This article unpacks what taxes are supposed to do, what they actually do, and what "tax justice" means—especially for those the system forgets.
Who is in the room?
She pays. She never receives. Why?
Because there is a room. In that room, decisions are made about who pays, how much, and where the money goes.
Some are in that room. They have seats. They have voices. They have lobbyists.
She is not in that room.
This article is about who is in the room, who is not, and what it would take to get her a seat.
What are taxes for?
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.
Taxation serves five core purposes:
Finance public goods and services Taxes pay for roads, schools, hospitals, sanitation, security, welfare, pensions, subsidies—the infrastructure of daily life. When you pay tax, you are contributing to the common pot from which everyone draws.
Redistribute wealth and reduce inequality Taxes can take from those who have more and fund services for everyone. This is how societies narrow the gap between rich and poor.
Stabilise the economy Governments use tax policy to manage economic cycles—reducing taxes during downturns to stimulate spending, increasing them during booms to cool inflation.
Influence behaviour Taxes can discourage harmful activities (like tobacco and alcohol taxes) or encourage beneficial ones (like tax breaks for renewable energy).
Build the social contract When people pay taxes and see services funded, trust in government grows. Taxation is the material expression of our relationship with the state and with each other.
But here is what they do not tell you
These purposes are not automatic. They do not just happen. They are fought over.
Taxation is political. It reflects power. Every tax law, every exemption, every rate, every decision about where revenue goes—these are battles between constituencies.
Some constituencies win. Some lose.
Multinational corporations lobby for tax breaks. They win.
The wealthy hire accountants to find loopholes. They win.
The extractive sector negotiates sweetheart deals. They win.
The woman in the market paying VAT on everything she buys? She is not in the room. She has no lobbyist. She does not win.
This is why the system feels rigged. Because it is. Not by accident. By design. By power.
Why tax is not like building a road
If an engineer miscalculates the camber on a road by a few millimetres, the road will flood. It breaks. It fails. That is a technical error. You can measure it. You can fix it.
If a surgeon loses a second during an operation, a life may end. That is a technical failure. Protocol exists to prevent it.
Tax is different.
A tax system can be technically perfect—every rate applied, every return filed, every shilling collected—and still be deeply unjust.
The maths works. The revenue comes in. The system functions exactly as designed.
The problem is not the calculation. The problem is the design. Who decided which goods would be taxed and which exempted? Who determined that corporate profits could be sheltered offshore? Who set the threshold that excludes informal traders from ever being counted as taxpayers?
Some were in the room when those decisions were made. They had seats. They had voices. They had lobbyists.
Others listened at the door. They could hear the conversation but could not join it.
Others had no ear at all. They did not know the conversation was happening. They only learned the outcome when they tried to access a service that was not there, or when they realised their taxes bought nothing they could use.
This is not a technical failure. It is a political one. It is not about getting the numbers wrong. It is about whose interests the numbers serve.
This is not a complaint. It is an opportunity
If taxation were purely technical—like engineering or medicine—there would be nothing to argue about. You could only comply with the standards or fail to meet them. The debate would end at "is it correct?"
But taxation is political. That means it is negotiable. It reflects priorities, interests, and power. And what reflects power can be reshaped by power.
We are not asking for 1 plus 1 to equal 3. We are not demanding the impossible. We are asking to be in the room where the 1 plus 1 is decided. We are asking whose interests the numbers serve, and whether those interests can include us.
This is the ground for engagement. Not complaint. Not resignation. Advocacy. The recognition that because tax is political, it can be changed. Not by magic. By organisation. By voice. By power.
The woman in Kampala does not need a better calculator. She needs a seat.
Who pays?
Not everyone pays the same way. There are two main types of taxes:
Direct taxes are paid directly to government on your income or profits. Examples:
Income tax on salaries
Corporate tax on company profits
Property tax on land and buildings
Indirect taxes are paid when you buy goods or services. Examples:
Value Added Tax (VAT) on almost everything
Excise duty on specific items like fuel, alcohol, and tobacco
Import duties on goods from other countries
But there is also a third category. The one that rarely gets discussed.
Levies, dues, and fees. Market fees. Garbage fees. Toilet fees. Parking fees. Water levies. The coins you pay every day but never see receipted. These do not get you into the tax accounting system. They are collected. They disappear. You pay, but when they name and count taxpayers, you are not there.
This is like women's unpaid care work. The national accounting system does not categorise it as work. So it does not count. You do the labour. The economy depends on it. But you are not counted.
The same with these daily payments. You pay. The system depends on your coins. But you are not counted.
Who really pays?
Taxes can be progressive or regressive.
Progressive taxes take a larger share from those who have more. Income tax that rises with earnings is progressive. The more you earn, the higher the rate you pay. This is based on ability to pay. [For a detailed look at how progressive vs. regressive taxation works in practice, see Part 2: Taxation and the Redistribution of Power
Regressive taxes take a larger share from those who have less. VAT is regressive. Rich and poor pay the same rate on goods. But the poor spend a larger share of their income on consumption. Every shilling they earn is spent on something, and every shilling spent carries VAT. The wealthy can save and invest, avoiding consumption taxes on the portion of income they do not spend.
This is the first injustice. Those with least pay the most, proportionally.
What the state did (or didn't do)
It failed. On every front. And it is still failing.
It fails to finance health. Clinics have no drugs. Hospitals have no beds. Women pay for delivery kits, for gloves, for medicine. They pay taxes. Then they pay again. Part 7: The Maternal Tax documents this.
It fails to finance education. School fees push children out. Girls are the first to go. Women borrow from savings groups to keep their daughters in class. The state that takes their taxes builds no classrooms, hires no teachers, provides no books.
It fails to redistribute wealth. Women remain trapped in poverty. The gap between rich and poor grows. Regressive taxes—VAT on essentials, market fees, levies—take a larger share from those who have least. Part 2: Taxation and the Redistribution of Power explains how.
It fails to provide social protection. No pension for the market trader who paid fees for forty years. No disability support. No unemployment benefit. When women can no longer work, they have nothing. Part 6: Forty Years of Nothing tells this story.
It fails to fulfil the social contract. The state takes. It never gives. Citizens learn they cannot depend on the system they fund. Trust erodes. The contract breaks.
But here is the deeper betrayal. Often the structures exist
The school building stands. The clinic has walls and a roof. The road was paved once.
None of it works.
The school has toilets, but they are not separate for girls and boys. Girls stay home when they menstruate. The teachers are on the payroll, but they do not come. They have not been paid in months. Why would they?
The health facility has workers, but no reproductive health services. A pregnant woman must walk long distances—while pregnant, while carrying a child for immunisation—to find care. The facility exists. The service does not.
The road was built. No one maintained it. When the rains come, homes submerge. Vehicles cannot pass. People swim where they should drive.
A parent once told me: "Sending your child to a government school is condemning them to failure."
Not because the school is absent. Because it is present and useless.
This is the state's presence without substance. The buildings are there. The budgets are spent. The woman still receives nothing. She walks past the clinic to find care. She passes the school to find education. She pays taxes for structures that do not function.
This is not failure. It is betrayal.
The triple tax burden
Across this series, a pattern emerges. Just as feminist economics names the triple work burden—reproductive, productive, community—so too must we name the triple tax burden women bear: reproductive, maternal, and care.
These are not three separate taxes. They are dimensions of a single system that extracts from women for being female.
Reproductive tax. Because they menstruate, women pay VAT on sanitary products. Because their bodies require safety, they pay for transport to avoid unsafe routes, for vigilance, for living in a body the system does not protect.
Maternal tax. Because they bear children, women pay for antenatal care, for delivery, for time off work, for career penalties, for childcare that should be socialised.
Care tax. Because society assigns them the role of caregivers, women bear the burden of taxes on cooking fuel, food, and essentials. This care tax has two further dimensions:
Time tax. The hours spent on unpaid care work that could be used for earning, rest, or participation in public life. When public services are cut, women absorb that work. The state takes their time.
Labour tax. Women's unpaid work subsidises the paid economy. Their labour is extracted without compensation, without recognition, without pension. The economy depends on it. They are never paid for it.
Three dimensions. One woman. A lifetime of paying.
[Part 4: The Triple Tax explores each of these burdens in depth, including the time and labour taxes embedded in care.]
What justice looks like
Tax justice is the idea that tax systems should be fair, transparent, and equitable. It focuses on who pays taxes, how much they pay, and how tax revenue is used.
A tax system is considered just when:
People contribute according to their ability to pay. This means progressive taxation: systems that generate sufficient public revenue while ensuring that revenue is fairly redistributed and focused on rebalancing economic and gender inequalities.
The wealthy and corporations pay their fair share No loopholes. No tax havens. No shifting profits to where they are not earned. When those with wealth avoid taxes, the money that should fund clinics, schools, and roads disappears. Women pay the price. These practices also deprive countries—especially in the Global South—of resources needed for development. [The scale of this loss is explored in Part 13: Illicit Financial Flows]
The tax burden is not unfairly shifted to the poor Many countries rely heavily on consumption taxes (VAT, sales taxes). These affect poorer households and individuals more because they spend a larger share of their income on basic goods.
Governments use tax revenue for public benefit Tax justice is not only about how taxes are collected but also how they are spent. Public resources should support public services, social protection, gender equality, and sustainable development. [Where the money actually goes is the subject of Part 14: State Accountability.]
Transparency and accountability Citizens should be able to see who pays taxes, how much revenue is collected, and how the money is spent. Without this, trust erodes and the social contract breaks.
A different kind of tax system
A just tax system would:
Be progressive: those with more pay more
Tax wealth, corporate profits, and capital gains fairly
Remove VAT on essentials like food, cooking fuel, and sanitary products
Design presumptive tax to account for sectoral margins and actual ability to pay
Record every payment, link it to a name, and build a history that follows the payer
Count informal workers as taxpayers and recognise their contributions
Fund universal healthcare, education, and social protection
Ensure that schools have separate toilets for girls, that teachers are paid, that clinics have drugs and reproductive health services, that roads are maintained
Be transparent: citizens can see where money goes and hold government accountable
[Part 15: The Tax System That Sees Us paints this vision in full.]
This is not a dream. It exists in countries where citizens organised and demanded it. Where the constituencies that usually lose found their voice and their power.
Where do we start?
Tax justice begins with awareness. It begins with asking questions.
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 taxes? If you do, recognise it as contribution, not just cost. But also demand to see what your contribution builds.
Do you vote? Tax policy is set by governments. Governments are chosen by voters. Ask candidates: What will you do to make taxes fair? What will you do to show us where our money goes? What will you do to ensure that schools, clinics, and roads actually function?
Do you speak up? When you see injustice, say something. When you hear someone boasting about tax evasion, challenge them. 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. [Part 18: Movement Consciousness explores what organising can achieve.]
The question
The woman in Kampala asked: "Where does our money go?"
This article has given you the tools to begin answering her. But the full answer lies in understanding how tax systems operate on the ground—in markets, in clinics, in old age, in sickness, in death.
And it lies in understanding that these outcomes are not technical. They are political. They are the result of battles won and lost. Constituencies served and ignored.
The woman in Kampala is not in the room where tax decisions are made. Neither are most women. Neither are most poor people. They walk past schools that do not teach, clinics that do not heal, roads that submerge when it rains. They pay taxes for structures that do not function.
But because tax is political, it can be changed.
Not by magic. Not by waiting. By organisation. By voice. By power. By demanding a seat in the room where the numbers are decided.
The woman in Kampala does not need a better calculator. She needs a seat.
The question the series asks is: what would it take to get her one? What would it take to build a tax system that sees her, counts her, and gives back what she paid—in functioning services, not just empty buildings?
That is what the "Tax Justice Through a Feminist Lens" series explores. Eighteen articles. Each examining a different layer of how the system takes from women and gives nothing back—and what it would take to change it.
If you are new to these ideas, you are now ready for the series. The concepts are clear. The questions are planted. The rest is evidence.
Read on. The women are waiting. And they are ready to take their seats.
Explore the full series
Part | Title | Core Focus |
0 | Tax Is Not Math. It Is Power. | Foundation: what taxes are for, who decides, why it matters |
1 | Opening provocation, citizen voices | |
2 | Power, progressive/regressive, presumptive tax | |
3 | Gender assumptions | |
4 | The Triple Tax: Reproductive, Maternal, Care | The three burdens women bear |
5 | Visibility, recognition, introduces three layers | |
6 | Invisible levies (market dues, toilet fees) | |
7 | Pension gap, retirement exclusion | |
8 | Health, sickness, death | |
9 | The State Takes Their Taxes. Their Groups Feed Each Other. | Savings groups, peer collateral, mutual aid as indictment |
10 | Nothing Official | Proof of existence, loans, documentation |
11 | The Pace of Change | Twenty years from mice to goats |
12 | Intersectionality | Which women? Rural, disabled, displaced, young, old |
13 | Illicit Financial Flows | The money that leaves Africa |
14 | State Accountability | Where does our money go? |
15 | The Tax System That Sees Us | Vision: what justice looks like |
16 | What Is the Opposite of Celebration? | Reflective piece on bearing witness |
17 | The Violence Tax | How unfair tax systems enable violence against women |
18 | Movement Consciousness | Organising, action, what you can do |
Links will be added as each article is published. The full series is available at https://www.nitetanzarn.com/blog.
Looking forward to the rest of this series.