Exploring the Gender Divide in Real Estate Ownership and Property Tax Compliance

This paper investigates gender disparities in residential property ownership and tax compliance in a large Argentine municipality using detailed tax administrative data. While ownership is evenly distributed between women, men, and co-owned properties up to the 40th percentile of the value distribution, higher-value properties exhibit significant gender disparities, with women’s share dropping to less than 20% in the top 1%. Tax compliance increases with property value, with an average evasion rate of 46%, and men and women are equally likely to meet their tax obligations across the distribution. However, women face slightly higher effective tax rates due to owning lower-value properties, which are disproportionately affected by a mildly regressive tax schedule. Gender responses to enforcement measures are also comparable. A soft randomized communication campaign significantly increased timely payments equally for both men and women, with men responding more quickly. Similarly, the findings show no gender-based differences in responses to macroeconomic shocks such as COVID-19. The study underscores the role of property tax in promoting equitable revenue mobilization and highlights the importance of gender-disaggregated data for informing tax policy and enforcement strategies.