Publication: Gender and Tax Incidence of Rural Land Use Fee and Agricultural Income Tax in Ethiopia
Date
2021-06
ISSN
Published
2021-06
Author(s)
Abstract
The rural land use fee and agricultural
income tax are major payments for rural landholders in
Ethiopia. This paper examines the gender implications of
these taxes using tax payment and individual land ownership
data from the Ethiopian Socioeconomic Survey 2018/2019. It
finds that the rural land use fee and agricultural income
tax, which are assessed on the area of landholdings, are
regressive. Female-headed- and female adult-only households
bear a larger tax burden than male-headed and dual-adult
households. Norms limiting women’s role in agriculture and
gender agricultural productivity gaps are likely to result
in lower consumption and accordingly, a higher tax burden
for female-headed households than for male-headed
households. Reducing the tax rates for smallholders can
diminish the gender difference in tax burdens, but the tax
continues to be regressive. This highlights the difficulty
of area-based land taxes to be vertically equitable.
Citation
“Komatsu, Hitomi; Ambel, Alemayehu A.; Koolwal, Gayatri; Yonis, Manex Bule. 2021. Gender and Tax Incidence of Rural Land Use Fee and Agricultural Income Tax in Ethiopia. Policy Research Working Paper;No. 9715. © World Bank, Washington, DC. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/35886 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”
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