What is tax law?

Tax law is that branch of public law that shares characteristics with tax lawThey do, however, have some minor differences. First of all, Tax Law is nothing more than a branch of law that studies and regulates the financial activity of the State from the legal point of view.

Financial activity is guided by tax law that legally regulates it, investigating and analyzing financial phenomena related to obtaining public money that may be subject to taxes.

As in the science of finance, its material object (financial activity of the State) it's divided in:

• Income
• Expenses
• Budget and
• Public credit

Therefore, it is about the budgets as a means of setting limits to income and expenses for a given period. Basically, it is science that studies and regulates not only the fate of public money, but also the entire financial legal system and the relationships resulting from the financial activity of the Condition.

Furthermore, it is important to emphasize again that tax law is a branch of public law and, therefore,

must always find support in the Law. Therefore, the considered rules of tax law establish forms, conditions and limit the obtaining of income and expenditures of public money.

Tax Law, in turn, corresponds to a sub-branch of law, belonging to the genus of Tax Law, which defines how taxes will be collected from citizens to generate income for the Condition.

Therefore, it constitutes a segment of financial law whose premise is the collection of public money through taxes to later compose funds and allocate them in public policies to achieve social improvements. Regulates the rules for the creation, collection and inspection of tax revenues.

Essential characteristics of tax law

One of the main essential characteristics of tax law is that it meets the requirements to satisfy the public economic needs and obtaining the necessary means for their coverage impose on the State and other entities public.

Is designed to guarantee the satisfaction of public needs, the financial activity includes the acquisition of economic means, the use of these means and the coordination of the means obtained and the profits to be made.

The tax may correspond to a legal benefit, relationship or institute. The legal tax relationship has a mandatory or credit nature, its objective is to obtain income public and does not depend on other legal ties, nor does it determine any specific duty to render the active subject respective.

Being of a mandatory credit nature, the purpose of the legal tax relationship is patrimonial in nature. And the respective provision is generally pecuniary in nature. However, such a pecuniary nature is not essential.

With the objective of obtaining public revenue, the legal-fiscal relationship is structured in terms of the respective active subject that normally presents the nature of a public entity.

Without depending on other legal ties or determining for the active subject any specific duty to provide, the tax relationship does not imply any consideration for public creditors. Likewise, it does not create for public entities the duty to reimburse the tax quotas they receive.

However, tax refunds will be logically permissible, not on the basis of the right of the taxpayer and the corresponding duty of a public entity, but on the basis of the mere faculty.

What is taxation?

It is the imposition of liensobligatory to persons or entities by governments. Taxes are collected in almost every country in the world, primarily to increase revenue from government spending, although they also serve other purposes.

In modern economies, taxes are the most important source of revenue for a country's government. Taxes differ from other sources of income in that they are mandatory levies and are not reciprocated. That is, generally they are not paid in exchange for something specific, such as a particular public service, the sale of public property or the issuance of public debt.

While taxes are supposed to are collected for the welfare of taxpayers as a whole, the individual liability of the taxpayer is independent of any specific benefits received. However, there are important exceptions.

Payroll taxes, for example, are commonly levied on earned income to fund benefits retirement benefits, medical payments, and other social security or programs, all of which can benefit the taxpayer.

Due to the likely link between taxes paid and benefits received, payroll taxes are sometimes referred to as "contributions»(As in the United States). However, payments are commonly required, and the link to benefits is sometimes quite weak.

Another example of a tax that is tied to benefits received, albeit imprecisely, is the use of fuel taxes for engines to finance the construction and maintenance of roads and highways, the services of which can only be enjoyed by consuming motor fuels taxed.

Tax types

In general terms, five types of taxes are classified: income taxes, fees, improvement contributions, mandatory loans and parafiscal contributions, which are identified from the Following way:

to) Income taxes: they are collected, for example, on urban property, the availability of income, the ownership of motorized vehicles, among others.

b) Fees or tolls: the rates result from state activities, such as public services or the exercise of police power. Examples: court fees and vehicle license fee.

c) Improvement contributions: the improvement contributions come from the performance of public works that imply the appreciation of the taxpayer's property. For example: improvements to the residential property environment.

d) Mandatory loans: they seek to collect income for the State in order to promote the financing of extraordinary or urgent expenses, when the national interest is present.

and) Parafiscal contributions: they are taxes to promote the financing of public activities. They are, therefore, finalist taxes, that is, their essence can be found in the destination given, by law, to the proceeds.