Tax law studies how the State exercises its tax powers.
Tax law is the branch of law responsible for administering the legal rules that enable the State to develop and exercise its tax powers. It is part of public law and is also known as tax law .
Tributes or taxes are mandatory economic disbursements that all citizens must make to finance the functioning of the state apparatus. Tax law is the division of law that analyzes and establishes the laws related to this procedure.
Tax law and tax relations
The tax link arises from the state's need to have money to finance its activity, which is oriented to the common good. This means that, when an individual or a company pays its taxes, it is contributing to the development of its community and, therefore, its own.
The tax relationship, therefore, involves a series of responsibilities and rights for all its parties. In its broadest aspect, tax law must focus its attention on two issues: the State is only able to demand the payment of tax when the laws authorize it; The citizen , for his part, only has the obligation to pay those taxes that are established by law.
In the tax relationship, the active subject is the State (appeals to its power to demand payment of the tax). The natural person or legal entity that is in the role of taxpayer, for its part, is the taxable person .
It should be noted that there are various types of taxes. We can mention direct taxes (which have a direct impact on income) and indirect taxes (which fall on individuals other than the taxpayer), among others.
Tax law analyzes the laws related to taxes.
Arise of taxes
Since civilization has existed, that is, since there has been a social organization with a certain structure, taxes have existed; In fact, in Ancient Egypt , citizens had to pay taxes to the pharaoh and there was also control over the tax declaration of animals and fruits. Certain ceramic pieces served as proof of said payments. Therefore, control and inspection cannot be taken as new aspects of our tax system.
In any case, the foundations of tax law were not laid until Ancient Rome ; It is true that in the beginning there was no fair taxation but over the years the ways in which States demand tax from their citizens have been refined. It is worth mentioning that the Romans were the first to carry out controls on property and register its inhabitants, and to have collecting bodies and legal bodies; That is why we can say that the fiscal organization that we enjoy today, without a doubt, is owed to them.
During the Middle Ages, power was represented by the feudal lord, who owned abundant properties and who grew richer every day at the expense of demanding exaggerated tributes from the poorest . In that period, payment was anarchic and arbitrary and the serfs had to not only pay with their scarce assets , but also by providing those services that the feudal lord demanded of them.
Later, with the emergence of the modern State, tax collection was imposed in a more organized way, in order to have a common public well with which to subsidize everything related to public spending and to be able to satisfy the needs of the entire community . In addition, the rights and obligations of each member of society were specified so that there was order. The State, therefore, was in charge of ensuring that organization.
To establish collection methods that were increasingly balanced and that considered the rights of all people, that State had to develop a collection plan that adjusted to the legal framework that governed that community.