Fair Taxation as a Basic Human Right

Abstract:     
One of the themes of this symposium issue is to explore the limits and possibilities of law and legal institutions in redressing poverty and economic inequality. This essay approaches the question by considering the ways in which domestic tax policy interacts with internationally-recognized human rights. I suggest that focusing on human rights jurisprudence could change the conventional balance among the tripartite of equity, efficiency, and simplicity principles that constitute traditional tax policy analysis. Accordingly, I propose that we may appropriately evaluate tax law and legal institutions according to whether they protect or undermine human rights, as a means of opening up new ways of tackling old and entrenched tax policy issues.

Keywords: taxation, tax policy, fairness, equity, efficiency, human rights, international taxation, UNDHR, ICCPR, ICESER, economic and social rights, access to necessities, deferral, multinational, neutrality, subpart F

JEL Classifications: H11, H21, H87, F02, F50, F53, F59, Z13, E63, H2, K33, K34, N40, P45

Accepted Paper Series