Are Taxes Really a Restriction to Fundamental Rights?

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to challenge the view of the tax as a restrictive law of fundamental rights, a proposal recently made in a thesis defended before the Faculty of Law of the University of São Paulo. The article will argue that this characterization of taxes – which is libertarian, not liberal – does not hold, either from the point of view of fundamental rights theories, or from the point of view of the 1988 Constitution. The article will also argue that this characterization of taxes is not just a wrong position from the theoretical or dogmatic field; it is a vision that causes disturbing consequences for the interpretation and application of tax law, conjuring up prejudices (such as the odious nature of the taxes) that were already considered to be definitively overcome.