Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-k7p5g Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-08T22:14:01.960Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Voluntary Compliance Beyond the Letter of the Law: Reciprocity and Fair Play

from PART I - TAXATION, STATE AND SOCIETY: RECIPROCITY AND THE LIMITS OF THE POWER TO TAX

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 September 2018

Hans Gribnau
Affiliation:
Professor of Tax Law, Tilburg Law School, Tilburg University and Leiden University
Get access

Summary

ABSTRACT

This chapter deals with the obligation to pay taxes. It starts from the idea of voluntary taxation. In ancient Athens, the wealthy had a moral obligation to pay a periodic voluntary contribution (‘ liturgy ‘). They paid for religious festivals and military expeditions which benefited society. This progressive voluntary tax was seen as a prerequisite for democracy, and so for equal political participation. Moreover, redistributive taxation thus mitigated substantial economic inequality. Nonetheless, there were ‘ free-riders ‘ who undermined citizens ‘ trust and their willingness to pay. The lesson to be learned is that the moral (political) obligation to pay taxes needs to be laid down in the law in order to create reciprocal trust that all citizens pay their (fair) share. This does not, however, preclude free-riding, for wealthy taxpayers and multinational corporations are often able to deftly play the (international) tax rules. Here the principle of reciprocity comes in. The principle of reciprocity underlies the obligation to obey the law and engenders a duty of fair play with regard to the obligation to pay taxes. It is argued that compliance should not be reduced to minimalist rule-following, minimising one ‘ s tax liability. This can be seen as taxpayers voluntarily complying beyond the strict letter of the law.

INTRODUCTION

The German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk recently labelled taxation ‘ the central moral phenomenon of our civilisation.’ He proposed an experiment: citizens should be allowed to pay (part of) their taxes voluntarily and to decide on the way this voluntary contribution should be spent. He argues that voluntarily paying taxes would contribute to citizens ‘ trust in politics and the way government spends their money.

In classical Athens rich citizens were expected to pay taxes voluntarily in kind. However, too many of these citizens refused to contribute which forced Athens to introduce obligatory payments. Historical evidence thus shows that a moral (political) obligation to pay taxes needs to be laid down in the law in order to create reciprocal trust that all citizens will pay their (fair) share.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Intersentia
Print publication year: 2017

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×