Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for the future. Failing to achieve gender equality costs us up to 16% of world income every year.

As laws in many countries are being reformed to advance gender equality, many challenges remain due to implicit bias in law, unchanged social norms and, especially, since the Covid-19 pandemic which exacerbated all existing inequalities.

Preventing economic distortions and providing for gender equality should be a main goal that could be achieved not only by promoting labour laws and ensuring welfare benefits, but also with the design of a tax-benefits system that could address these issues.

In the specific context of government revenue collection, gender balance is often neglected as a policy rationale. Even if tax provisions do not explicitly disadvantage women over men, they do not correct gender differences nor prevent the subsequent economic distortions.

A gender-sensitive tax-benefits system could become a permanent safeguard policy for gender issues, promoting gender equality as proposed by the G20 2023 Action Plan on Accelerating Progress on the sustainable development goals (SDGs).

We propose a gender-neutral tax design that could include:

• An income tax special deduction in case access to early childhood education and childcare cannot be secured in public facilities.
• Taxing women on a reduced rate, considering the gender pay gap.
• Providing incentives to employers who enforce flexible work entitlements and part-time work, among both men and women.
• Mandatory employment-protected paid maternity and paternity leave.
• Tax incentives to ease access to the care and feeding of babies, and women products.