2023-12-22 07:05:00
Social justice and taxes are closely associated. In fact, taxation has a lot to do with social problems as it is the means by which the necessary resources are obtained to execute public policies. The goal of tax justice is beginning to take shape with the trend toward progressive tax systems, taxing those who earn the most more. However, the tax administration’s tolerance for fraud limited the objective of the progressive effect.
Taxes do not have a good reputation anywhere in the world. His radical opponents argue that the tribute constitutes a form of assault on their property. For others, taxes are a necessary evil and they accept that fiscal policies are essential. Therefore, the tax system should be guided by distribution criteria that ensure fair burdens and benefits among taxpayers. Taxation is unfair when people’s ability to access decent living opportunities deteriorates, implementing tax reforms that are harmful to their precarious economic condition.
From the acceptance of the need for taxes, the determination of the fiscal responsibilities and favors that can take place in the system proceeds. Aside from technical considerations about economic efficiency, the design and implementation of a tax system respond to a particular conception of distributive justice. That is, in addition to determining whether indirect taxes favor or harm savings, or direct taxes have an impact on the labor market or income distribution, it is important to establish the reason why some taxpayers should pay more and others less.
The same happens with respect to activities that should be taxed or exempt, or about the choice of a progressive tax or a flat one. The equity of tax systems can consist of unequal treatment of taxpayers with different levels of consumption or income, and equitable treatment of taxpayers located at the same levels of the tax base.
These decisions cannot be based solely on technical criteria, nor exclusively subject to regulatory principles. A combination of efficiency and justice criteria is required that are incorporated into matters as important as the foreseeable effects in the areas of tax evasion, collection, investment, savings and others.
The tax reform that the National Assembly has just approved, at the initiative of the Executive, with the Law of Economic Efficiency and Employment Generation, does not respond to the criteria of tax and social justice mentioned, since it fundamentally aims at the collection of resources in the year 2024. To do this, it uses excise taxes without legitimacy, since it is limited to identifying an apparently safe source, such as Amnesty or tax forgiveness. The urgency of resources makes us lose sight of the importance of structural reforms that are inserted in a process of efficiency, tax and social justice favorable to economic growth and the redistribution of wealth.
If it is about obtaining tax revenue, it is much more fair, immediate and convenient to collect the Foreign Exchange Outflow Tax, at a higher rate, which would also allow controlling – or taxing – the flight of capital to tax havens, and reinvest resources in the country to improve the growth rate of the economy.
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