O regime jurídico-constitucional das contribuições destinadas ao custeio da seguridade social: a importância basilar e estruturante da finalidade e os demais limites ao poder de tributar

Abstract

In the complex relations between power and the law, the Brazilian tax law system is part of a constitutional design aimed at the construction and regulation of a truly democratic and social rule of law. Such aim is reflected by legal principles and rules that limit and constrain the institution of taxes. Through a theoretical and bibliographical research, the present thesis intends to reconstruct the importance of binding tax expenditure to social ends in the case of the so called “tax contributions” in light of legal certainty and social justice. In this sense, after the description of the legal and social problems related to tax contributions in Brazil and the reaffirmation of the tax law nature of such contributions (as they are truly a part of the tax law system of norms and bound by it), the doctoral research reexamines the literature on the classification of taxes and legal norm theory in order to present a reinterpretation of tax expenditure linking as a cogent requisite of legitimation. Given that such linkage is not the only constraint to the power to tax (and destroy), the research dedicates also to the other principles and rules applicable to tax contributions, particularly those related to social security.