Soberania tributária na pós-modernidade: a governança tributária global como limitação externa ao poder de tributar ( e de não tributar)

Abstract

Amid so many social changes introduced by the advent of postmodernity, driven by globalization, it captures our attention the weakening of classic national political-legal orders and the subsequent rise of a new (networked) world order, characterized by novel power units and hybrid forms of regulation, characteristic example of which is the international soft law. In the context of structural crisis of the todays world, global governance emerges as an alternative to the creation of a world government and to the formula state as the only formal source of law, in the search for solutions that may equate problems that exceed the capacity to act of nation-states and that touch upon the entire world society. In respect do tax law, global governance already presents itself as a reality in crystallization, insofar as we observe that tax systems are increasingly subject to external interference, followed by an exponential involvement of transnational actors with taxation (domestic/international). These reasons lead to the following assertion: in our times, taxation is controlled by a coherent system of global actors, in particularinternational organizations, specifically the OECD, the IMF, World Bank, WTO and the UN, which, taking advantage of the power of influence (political and economic) that is inherent in them, create and disseminate tax standards (de facto tax sovereignty), imposing constrains on the exercise of legislative activity on tax matters on the part of states (de jure tax sovereignty). This is what might be called global tax governance.That being the case, it seems clear the need for a reinterpretation of old concepts, such as the notion of state sovereignty and, specifically in the tax field, tax sovereignty, so readapt them to new shifting reality. Hence, the main purpose of this study is to understand the phenomenon of global governance in the tax arena through the reassessment of the idea of tax sovereignty, taking as a backdrop the postmodernity or, as Z. BAUMAN puts it, the liquid modernity. The interdisciplinary methodology coordinates understandings from various fields of knowledge, namely, law, philosophy, sociology, economics, political science and international Relations. The research included the analysis of official documents and information available in the websites of the main international organizations involved in tax matters and revisited the specificliterature related to post-modernity, globalization, global governance, sovereignty and linked areas. As such, this work aims to contribute to a better understanding of how tax law develops in contemporary times, taking into account the external limitations on theexercise of taxing power by states.