The case for the enactment of a taxpayers' charter

Abstract

Tax administrations and taxpayers' rights are the subjects of contemporary development and modernization in several jurisdictions. Civil and Common law countries alike are adopting taxpayer's charters whereby tax administrations are being renovated in the ambit of the compliance philosophy, and taxpayers' rights are being redefined inline with the essential element of the rule of law, certainty. Taxpayers' rights may be identified in the wider concept of human rights, which enjoy international acknowledgment and understanding. In the last century a number of international and regional covenants on human rights were ratified; the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights\ the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights2 The European Convention for the protection of Human Rights and the Fundamental Freedoms3 and most recently Human Rights were also incorporated in the draft Constitution of the EU. These covenants provide for monitoring institutions, which have the role to scrutinize the States behaviour in protection of human rights. Furthermore, almost all developed states have incorporated the fundamental human rights into their Constitutions; which provide the highest legal protection within a jurisdiction. In sum human rights are broadly recognised and widely protected in most developed countries. Nevertheless, taxpayers' rights are really and truly a subset of human rights, dealing explicitly with tax administration and governments on tax related matters. Taxpayers' rights are distinct and specific by their very nature and need to be provided for in a separate legal instrument in addition to the general human rights legislation. The protection offered by international covenants and constitutions is too general and open to cater for the specific taxpayers' rights. Additionally, taxpayers' rights are at times, by virtue of their administrative nature explicitly excluded from the protection offered by human rights legislation.