Hanna Filipczyk
Why is Tax Avoidance (Im)moral? Ethics, Metaethics and Taxes
Summary
Tax avoidance is a serious problem of public finance and social life. Yet in the world of incommensurable ethical paradigms (A. MacIntyre) arguing that this practice is morally wrong is an uneasy task. The article attempts to develop such an argument.
Tax avoidance, as a course of action in line with the “letter” of the tax law but contrary to its “spirit”, fails the test of I. Kant’s categorical imperative. The “maxim of behaviour” of a tax avoider cannot be universalized without contradiction. He assumes the existence of law and uses it but acts in a way which if universally adopted, would make law dysfunctional and lead to its collapse. Law could not subsist as a system if read literally across the board. This is because its essential feature is intelligibility, which in turn is due to its “spirit”’ (ratio legis).
This line of reasoning is not without difficulties. However, it reflects a core moral intuition: that it is morally wrong to have manipulative attitude towards others and their speech acts, including those constituting the law. It is one of the reasons why “the avoidance of tax may be lawful, but it is not yet a virtue” (Lord Denning).
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