Tax and Financial Law Discussion: Series on Economic Law

Author: Zhang Shouwen
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-05-01
Features: The growth and prosperity of fiscal and tax law are driven by economic and social development. The expansion of fiscal and tax law has touched upon many areas of legal regulation and has brought new issues to related fields of law, thereby also promoting the development of related disciplines and even the entire field of law. The scope of fiscal and tax law is vast, and related fiscal and tax law issues are numerous. It is unlikely that anyone in the world today could comprehensively discuss so many issues, so only the key aspects can be briefly outlined and discussed, leading to the creation of this book, Fiscal and Tax Law Commentary. Fiscal and Tax Law Commentary, of course, does not dare to imitate the Commentary on the Tang Code. It does not focus on interpreting and annotating existing fiscal and tax law provisions. The term "commentary" is used for the following reasons:
First, as mentioned earlier, the field of fiscal and tax law involves too many issues that affect all aspects, extending to related disciplines within the field of law, as well as peripheral disciplines such as economics, political science, and sociology. Therefore, for many fiscal and tax law issues, one can only select and prioritize based on certain needs, unable to cover everything comprehensively or examine each in detail. This is what is meant by "scattered discussions" or "disparate essays."
Second, although "commentary" is a "scattered discussion," it should help clarify the complex and intertwined key issues in fiscal and tax law, striving to maintain coherence despite the dispersion. In this book, the focus is on only two types of fiscal and tax law issues: fiscal constitutional issues and the improvement of fiscal and tax law systems. These two types of issues are interdependent and directly or indirectly connected to various practical fiscal and tax law issues, making them important clues for analyzing related problems. Similarly, the attention to these two types of issues should throughout the book to guide the discussion. Therefore, from the perspective of objectives, "commentary" should also be a "guiding" discussion or a "clarifying" discussion.
Third, since it is a "commentary," it is also a "freestyle" discussion, meaning that the arrangement of content is not bound by the constraints of general topics, especially not by the influence of typical textbooks or textbook-style works, but rather aims to let "thoughts soar freely in the evening breeze." If, from the macro to the micro, at all intersections and in the intricacies, one can discuss the issues with ease and fluency, even if sometimes overly broad, it is still a realm of its own, and it may also touch upon topics that have not been discussed before.
Fourth, the results of the aforementioned "commentary" may be "incomplete" discussions. The book discusses many issues with a relatively broad scope, which is not easy to handle, and in some aspects, there are no established precedents to follow. Various omissions, errors, oversights, and gaps may arise. Yet, it is precisely these omissions, errors, oversights, and gaps that may hold greater value, as they reduce the bumps and hardships on the shared "trial-and-error" journey of colleagues.
Based on the above considerations, the book starts from practical issues such as fiscal crises and specific tax cases, proposing the two types of fiscal and tax law issues that people widely: fiscal constitutional issues and the improvement of specific fiscal and tax law systems. Among these two types of issues, three major principles in the field of fiscal and tax law should be emphasized: the principle of separation of powers, the principle of tax legalism, and fiscal federalism. These issues and principles are particularly prominent in the institutional evolution of fiscal and tax law. Therefore, it is necessary to propose a "taxability theory" in the field of tax law to connect these issues and principles and guide the specific institutional construction. During the process of institutional construction, attention should be paid to the allocation of rights for various subjects and the regulation of their behaviors.
The book focuses on tax law, which plays a significant role in fiscal and tax law, to explore the specific allocation of tax power and the regulation of the behaviors of various subjects under tax law. This is the main content of the book, which determines its structure. The book is divided into six chapters, each of which is both independent and interconnected, involving the two core issues of fiscal and tax law research: fiscal constitutional issues and the improvement of specific fiscal and tax law systems. At the same time, each chapter contains several relatively independent yet interrelated "sub-issues," each followed by a "summary" to briefly summarize the key points, aiming to facilitate readers in grasping the essence.