The Social Cooperation from John Rawls’ Perspective and the Pursuit of a New Model to Enhance Tax Administration and Taxpayers’ Relationship

Abstract

The social contract theories are the basis of the modern conception of the State despite all its different approaches. Its persistence in contemporary public debate shows the difficulty in dissociating the “original contract” idea from the foundation of the States’s legitimacy. Nonetheless, the State’s maintenance is provided primarily by taxation, which represents the transfer of parts of private property to the public treasury. The State, as a precondition of existence and effectiveness of individual rights, therefore, depends on taxation to accomplish the public needs. In spite of this, the relationship between Tax Administrations and taxpayers is usually adversarial in Brazil, which undermines the efficiency and fairness of the tax system. From a contractual perspective, John Rawls’ theory sets the grounds of society as a fair cooperation system, providing elements for the development of institutional models to a cooperative relationship between Tax Administration and taxpayers. Such cooperative basis enables fairness in the relationship itself and also in the pursuit of the principles of justice set by the Rawls as applied to society’s basic structure. These principles’ analysis allows for concluding that Tax Administration must support cooperation in the relationship with taxpayers, assuming a responsive approach in order to increase the willingness of tax compliance and build tax legitimacy.