Justice, Equality and Tax Law

S. 5641. Introduction

Many modern societies are founded on the basic premise of the existence of the fundamental social contract. According to this social contract, at least from a tax perspective, while taxpayers became legally (and, to some extent, morally) obligated to pay taxes for the maintenance of public services, tax administrations were given the legal competence to collect taxes and ensure their collection. Despite being seemingly balanced, the relationship between taxpayers and tax administration is historically troubled.

If, on the one hand, taxpayers have been developing techniques for tax avoidance as in the exercise of an apparent “legal right of a tax to decrease the amount of what otherwise would be his taxes or altogether avoid them”, tax administrations sometimes exceed their duties, i.e. what was summarized by Chief Justice John Marshall’s affirmation that “the power to tax is the power to destroy”.

In the development of this contrasting relationship, some achievements have been constructed to impose limits and, at the same time, guarantee rights. The principle of legal certainty is one result of this development. In this sense, rules must be clear, reliable, and stable ...