The constitutional purification of the principle of economic capacity

The expansive wave of STC 182/2021 and the collateral effects of the state of alarm on objective taxation

Authors

  • Jorge de Juan Casadevall Universidad Internacional de Cataluña

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18042/cepc/redc.127.09

Abstract

The paper addresses a topic of deep constitutional significance, such as the subjection of so-called objective taxes, that is, those that measure their tax base with signs or modules that are considered expressive or indicative of a manifestation of wealth, to the requirements of the principle of economic capacity enshrined in article 31 of the Constitution. The author maintains that with the recent STC 182/2021, of October 26, which declared the tax on the increase in the value of urban land unconstitutional, the Constitutional Court has refined the triple operational functionality of the constitutional principle of economic capacity: as a basis, as an imposition parameter and as a negative limit of the tax system. This complete constitutional doctrine can especially impact objective taxes due to their disconnection with the economic reality subject to taxation. It focuses on the analysis of the IAE, which it faces from the double perspective of this latest constitutional jurisprudence and the economic effects of the state of alarm and its successive extensions, to conclude that this anachronistic tax is of dubious constitutionality.

Published

2023-04-24

Issue

Section

JURISPRUDENCE. CRITICAL STUDIES