This guide helps tax professionals think through the key gender questions when designing tax programmes, and is written to share learning with donors. It distinguishes two categories of support that development actors may provide to partner governments: making tax systems fairer for women, and using the tax system as a tool to advance gender equality.

It explains why gender matters in tax programming even where tax rules appear gender neutral, since in practice women more often occupy the second earner or lower socio-economic position and can face a higher effective tax rate than a single earner. It notes that tax administration can also treat women differently, whether through knowledge imbalances, officials in positions of power over female taxpayers, or harassment, abuse and corruption. The guide is deliberately not a comprehensive checklist and expects to be shaped by local context. It forms part of the K4D learning journey on tax and gender.