WUNRN
TAXES - FISCAL POLICY - RIGHTING
FINANCE - HUMAN RIGHTS - NON-DISCRIMINATION - EQUALITY - GENDER
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REPORT OF UN SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR ON
EXTREME POVERTY TO THE UN 2014: TAXES, FISCAL POLICY, & HUMAN RIGHTS
In the present report, the Special Rapporteur
on extreme poverty and human rights presents fiscal policy, and particularly
taxation policies, as a major determinant in the enjoyment of human rights.
Taxation is a key tool when tackling inequality and for generating the
resources necessary for poverty reduction and the realization of human rights,
and can also be used to foster stronger governance, accountability and
participation in public affairs.
Transferring and redistributing wealth through
taxation has the potential to redress systemic discrimination (based on, inter
alia, gender, race, age, sexual orientation, disability, socioeconomic status)
and to spur progress towards substantive equality.[1][1] These are
fundamental human rights goals and are conducive to sustainable poverty
reduction. Tax structures must, however, be carefully designed if a more
equitable distribution of incomes is to be achieved.
.[2][1] Women, who tend
to use larger portions of their income on basic goods because of gender norms
that assign them responsibility for the care of dependents, bear the regressive
brunt of consumption taxes.[3][2]
UN Human Rights Council Session 26 -
Geneva
Debate on the Report of the Special
Rapporteur on Extreme Poverty & Human Rights on FISCAL POLICY
DAWN STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF RIGHTING
FINANCE, NON-DISCRIMINATION, EQUALITY
I am
Nicole Bidegain from Development Alternatives with Women for a New era (DAWN)
and I am speaking on behalf of the Righting Finance Initiative . We welcome the
report on taxation and HR as it establishes the connection between achieving
human rights and the need to maximize collection of resources from all possible
sources.
We
appreciate the balanced approach of the report in recognizing that collecting
adequate tax revenue is not left to domestic policy alone, but requires an
enabling environment in compliance with obligations for international
cooperation on human rights.
Applying
the principle of equality and non-discrimination to taxation implies to shift
the tax burden from consumption taxes paid by women, people living in poverty
and other groups facing structural discrimination such as gays, lesbian and
trans people who are in the bottom of the income distribution, to progressive
taxation systems including profitable sectors and economic actors who are
currently undertaxed.
In
this line, we support the recommendations to:
•
Ensure
the public revenue raised from the financial sector is commensurate to the
sector’s profitability and the risks it generates; including but not limiting
to the implementation of a financial transaction tax (para 79, n).
•
Ensure
that extractive industries are subject to appropriate tax rates and export
duties and that the human rights of affected communities are protected (para
79, l)
Secondly,
governments need to revert “the race to the bottom” and moving from tax
competition to tax cooperation. We call governments to implement the following
recommendations of the report to:
•
“institute
fully transparent public oversight over the granting and monitoring of tax incentives,
and conduct periodic assessments of (…) human rights compliance, informed by
broad public participation, especially by individuals who will be most
affected;” (para 79 j)
•
“adopt
country-by-country reporting standards for all transnational corporations”
(Para 81 f)), “full disclosure of beneficial ownership of registered companies
through national public registries;” (Para 81 g)) and developing “a
multilateral, global system of automatic tax information exchange” (Para 81
d)).
Third,
we recommend that as part of the mandate of the new special rapporteur,
governments receive support to implement the specific recommendations of the
report and that next reports further develop the links between financial
regulation, taxation and human rights of people living in poverty.
To
conclude, we endorse the proposal to “include a commitment to align fiscal
policy with human rights obligations as part of the post-2015 development
framework”.
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TAXATION & GENDER EQUITY
A Comparative Analysis of Direct
& Indirect Taxes in Developing & Developed Countries
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