Taxes & sexes: A brief history

Compared to women, men generally pay more taxes, says a recent global research report. That’s a lot like saying, compared to men, women generally have more babies, writes Indu Balachandran

Historically, genetically, and statistically — men have worked for wages and incentives much longer than women ever have. Paying a woman for ‘working’, let alone paying taxes, never occurred to anyone for centuries; starting with the Neanderthal man who left his woman to clean the cave and raise his baby while he went out clubbing (literally, to club a woolly mammoth on its head). So it’s reasonable to assume that when money was invented, men nabbed it all, as a reward for getting a piece of work done.

But then came the concept of taxes. This is the unkind act of snatching away part of what you slogged for — by a higher authority. The Pharaohs were the first geniuses to live off other men’s hard work, grabbing 20% of grain from every farmer’s harvest. So for the records, taxes began in Egypt 5000 years ago. But with the invention of coins as money, the Greeks, notably Julius Caesar and his mathematically inclined nephew Augustus, invented not just the annoying income tax, but also sales tax, property tax, capital gains tax, and probably even GST.

The Egyptians and Greeks are also credited for creating the first taxation document in 196 BC, called the Rosetta Stone, now lodged in the British Museum. Immediately a bunch of scheming guys, (probably ancient ancestors of Trump's accountants) began studying it, looking for loopholes to dodge taxes.

Taxing times

History shows that the biggest incentive for male rulers to collect taxes was to conduct wars. Meanwhile in India around the 3rd century BC, a court accountant Kautilya wrote taxation laws in the Arthashastra, discouraging Chandragupta from waging wars and recommending taxes be used instead for welfare. But he wrote some pretty mean laws for girls, like marriage at age 7, with no rights whatsoever over money. This led some women to protest, secretly learn and master finance. Indian mythology’s Draupadi was probably the first female accountant, as treasurer of Indraprastha. Her savvy math skills even saved the Pandavas from financial ruin.

Money-lenders

Elsewhere in the world, a shrewd community called the Jews became money-lenders; ‘charging interest’, as crippling as taxes, and their most famous accountant was a Shakespearean character called Shylock. He was responsible for this painful metaphor: ‘extracting a pound of flesh’.

To save yourself similar pain from the government, you could quietly settle down in another country, such as UAE, Bahamas, Monaco, Cayman Islands or Bermuda… some countries where the amount of tax you need to pay is ‘0’.

With July and its last-minute tax-filing stress just gone by, you’ll probably now pay more attention to saving LIC challans, rent receipts and other tax deductibles. This is the time to discover that a Tax Shelter isn’t a dwelling where homeless accountants live, but a clever place to park your money, preventing the hand of the government from snatching it away. But to get back to taxes and the sexes. As a female, it gives me much pride to know that womankind has caught up with mankind, even surpassing them at times, in earnings/taxes. Guess who’s expected to beat Akshay Kumar soon as the highest taxpayer in Bollywood? No, not Shah Rukh Khan. No, not Aamir Khan. Yes, it’s Deepika Padukone.

(HeSaid/SheSaid is a monthly column on gender issues—funny side up.
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