Women in the e-commerce: leveraging tax policy and administration for inclusive growth
Women entrepreneurs often face challenges in accessing digital tools, financial literacy, and support networks. With tax policies designed largely around traditional business models, many women are left without the guidance or incentives they need to thrive. Therefore, as these sectors expand, tax policy must adapt to ensure fairness, equity, and inclusivity.
With this in mind, on 29 April 2025, the Addis Tax Initiative (ATI) and the Network of Tax Organisations (NTO) jointly organised a webinar titled Women in e-commerce: leveraging tax policy and administration for inclusive growth which was attended by about 60 participants.
The webinar explored the challenges and opportunities in using tax policy and administration as levers to support women’s full and active participation in e-commerce. By bringing together policymakers, tax administrators, e-commerce platforms, civil society actors, and researchers, the discussion underscored the transformative potential of making the digital space gender inclusive, contributing to the advancement of the SDG 5 on Gender Equality. This goal is central for both the ATI and the NTO.
The opening remarks of the event were conducted by the Head of the NTO Council and Executive Director of Commonwealth Association of Tax Administrators (CATA), Esther Koisin. She highlighted the importance of tax policy and tax administrations to adapt to innovations, underscoring the opportunity to create a tax environment that allows women to thrive in the digital economy. The discussion was moderated by Nana Akua Mensah.
The panel discussion which reflected on concrete tax policy and tax administration aspects was preceded by an expert presentation that laid the ground.
Here are the main take aways of the presentation delivered by Jalia Kangave, Associate Research Fellow at the International Centre for Tax and Development (ICTD):
- Tax responses to digitalisation include policy reforms, such as the introduction of digital service taxes, and the adoption of digital tools to make revenue authority processes agile and efficient.
- Digitalisation can reduce costs to both tax administrations and taxpayers. However, these benefits are not always automatic to the latter. Poor access to technology and internet connection, lack of technological awareness and skills, low literacy levels, and mistrust in new systems are all barriers for the adoption of digital tax tools.
- Such barriers tend to be higher to women, who face a significant mobile access gap in south Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and are overrepresented in the percentage of informal workers and small firm owners, especially in Africa. The fact that women have usually less awareness about the functioning of tax systems, in general, and have less access to networks also contributes to that.
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Although not directly targeted at women, recent reforms to simplify and digitalise taxation in the informal sector can have a positive impact on them. However, a survey conducted on the usage of novel digital tax tools in Rwanda shows that women are still less aware of innovations in comparison to men. Education, awareness and the size of companies are reported as the main characteristics influencing the adoption of these tools.
Following this input, Nana commenced the moderated panel discussion which hosted, alongside Jalia, high-level speakers and specialists including Varsha Singh, Commissioner General at the Seychelles Revenue Commission (SRC) and board members of ATAF Women in Tax Network, Edward Abrokwah, Director of Revenue Policy at the Ministry of Finance of Ghana, and Pamela A. Clegg, Vice President for Latin America at IVIX.
The conversation was kickstarted with a question posed to Jalia on what research tells us about the intersection of digitalisation, taxation, and gender. She highlighted the role of mobile money in advancing financial inclusion in Africa, especially for the those in the informal economy. While this enables governments to tax informal activities more easily, she raised concerns about the potential negative impacts on women’s income and inclusion.
Despite limited evidence, short term studies found an initial drop followed by increased mobile money usage, though without gender-disaggregated data, in response to taxes on mobile money. In Ghana, for instance, as the e-levy exempted low-income users, among whom women are overrepresented, the impacts on them were not that pronounced.
Drawing from his experience on designing and implementing policies targeted at women led small and medium enterprises (SME), Edward shared an economist perspective. He emphasised the importance of gender-inclusive policies in promoting women’s economic growth, noting that gender-neutral approaches often fail to ensure their full inclusion.
In Ghana, where nearly 44% of SMEs are led by women and contribute to 70% of GDP, innovations by the Ghana Revenue Authority, such as the e-levy, have supported women’s access to the formal economy and credit. However, he emphasised that tax policy alone is insufficient – skills training and additional economic incentives are needed to enhance women’s participation in the digital space.
Pamela A. Clegg presented IVIX’s work as the first AI-powered platform designed to support governments in combating financial crime. The platform helps tax authorities identify compliance patterns, revealing that men are more likely to underreport income while women demonstrate higher tax compliance.
In the digital economy, where women are more often digital influencers and men account for around 70% of short-term rentals, tax compliance tends to be lower among the latter. Considering strategies to improve compliance, Pamela emphasised a preference for a "carrot" approach, prioritising incentives and guidance over punitive measures.
Assuming that non-compliance often stems from the complexity of tax systems, they focus on notifying and explaining to individuals on how to meet their obligations and settle outstanding debts. This strategy, reinforced by educational campaigns, has proven cost-effective in some cases, recovering up to 50% of unreported tax revenue.
Varsha Singh, who is also an AWITN board member, discussed the role of international and regional initiatives and tax organisations, including the ATI and the NTO in advancing gender-responsive tax policy. She presented some of the main initiatives taken place by AWITN in recent years and highlighted actions she considers essential to advance the agenda.
Looking at the representation of women in tax administrations, an increase in the share of female senior tax officials in ATAF member countries from 15% in 2021 to 25% in 2024 was identified.
A key initiative has been a peer mentorship programme for women in the field, supporting cross-border leadership development. The initiative of AWITN has further been upscaled and implemented by two NTO members with support from the NTO.
Varsha emphasised the strategic role of regional organisations in pooling resources and advocating collectively, citing ATAF’s push for gender-disaggregated data to inform tax policy. Looking ahead, she underlined the need to amplify women’s voices in international forums and underscored the opportunity to make gender a priority at the upcoming FfD4 Conference in June 2025.
The discussion spotlighted ATI-NTO’s collective reflections on the intersection of e-commerce, gender, and taxation, which is an increasingly relevant topic. The growth of e-commerce and digital markets offers significant opportunities for economic inclusion, but challenges such as skills development and the design of fair digital taxation systems are critical to ensuring women can fully participate and benefit.