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Justifying Taxes

Agustin Jose MenendezARENA, Norwegian Research Council, Oslo, Norway

ISBN13: 9780792370529
ISBN: 079237052X
Published: July 2003
Publisher: Kluwer Law International
Format: Hardback
Price: Out of print





This text offers readers some of the elements of a democratic tax law, considered within its political and philosophical context in order to determine the extent of legitimate tax obligations. The objective is to revisit some of the issues in the dogmatics of tax law from the viewpoint of a critical citizen, always ready to ask questions about the justification underlying her obligations, and especially about her paramount burden, viz., the payment of certain amounts of money. Within this purview, special attention is paid to the general principles of taxation.

Contents:
Acknowledgements.
1: The Project.
1. A Normative Theory of Democratic Tax Law.
2. Some Preliminary Questions.
3. Plan of the Book.
2: Do We Need a Normative Theory of Democratic Tax Law? 1. Introduction.
2. Objections to the Relevance or Importance of the Thesis.
3. Scepticism About the Normative Project. The Challenge From Emotivism, Communitarianism and Rational Choice.
4. The Strong Autonomy Thesis and the Non-Law Objection.
5. The Potentiality and the Limits of a Normative Theory of Democratic Tax Law.
3: Some Notes on the History of Taxation.
1. Introduction.
2. Before the Tax State.
3. The Rise of the Tax State.
4. The Liberal Tax State: Ad Rem Taxes.
5. The Material Tax State: Personal Taxes.
6. The Tax Crisis: a Matter of Trust.
7. Towards a Procedural Paradigm of Tax Law? 4: Justifying the General Obligation to Pay Taxes (1): The Structure of the Obligation.
1. Introduction 2. The Peculiar Structure of the General Obligation to Pay Taxes.
3. Moving Coercion From Core to Periphery.
5: Justifying the General Obligation to Pay Taxes (2): The Tasks Assigned to the Tax System.
1. Introduction.
2. To Redistribute or not to Redistribute. Liberist vs. Liberal Ideas.
3. The Market in Search of a Justification.
4. Tax Standards of Justification: What Generality? Whose Equality? Which Legal Security? 5. A Positive Argument for Redistribution.
6. Some Very Brief Remarks on the Management and Steering of the Economy.
6: Justifying the General Obligation to Pay Taxes (3): An Argument for the Legitimacy of the Obligation to Obey the Law.
1. Introduction.
2. Discourses of Justification in Tax Literature.
3. The General Obligation to Obey the Law.
4. For and Against the General Obligation to Obey the Law.
5. A Positive Argument.
6. Conclusion: a Complex Theory of the Legitimacy of Law as the Basis of the Obligation to Obey the Law.
7: Reconstructing Constitutional Reasoning on Tax Matters. The Spanish Tribunal Constitucional.
1. Introduction.
2. The Spanish Transition to Democracy and the Materialisation of Taxes.
3. Legitimacy Through Participation.
4. Legitimacy Through Substantive Correctness.
5. Legitimacy Through Guaranteed Implementation.
6. The General Understanding of the Relationship.
8: The Liberal Principles of Taxation.
1. Legitimacy Through Participation.
2. Legitimacy Through Substantive Correctness.
3. Legitimacy Through Guaranteed Implementation.
9: As a Sort of Conclusion. Bibliographical References. Table of Cases. Name Index.