The principles of justice of tributary species: the ability to pay and the principle of the benefit in relation to the size of the State

Abstract

Abstract: This paper aims to recover two principles of justice, the ability to pay and benefit, adopted in the theory of public finances, and apply them to the tributary species, considering the tripartite classification of Ataliba. It defends the thesis that each tributary species has an inherent principle of justice that governs it. The article also demonstrates that while the principle of ability to pay dissociates the cost of benefit from the goods and services offered by the State, the benefit principle promotes this linkage. Lastly, it shows that in promoting this linkage, the principle of benefit makes decisions about the size of the state – read, the allocative decisions regarding the quantity of public goods and services offered - remain in the hands of the taxpayers, while the principle of ability to pay, by separating the cost of benefit for each thank-you, places the decision in the hands of the central power. However, we find that while the subspecies of tribute bound rate allows taxpayers to make decisions regarding the size of the state, the same cannot be said of the subspecies of tribute bound contribution.
Keyworks: Ability to pay. Benefit. Principles of justice. Related taxes. Size of the state. Unrelated taxes.