The purse of the polity: tax power in the European Union

Abstract

This paper describes the actual constitutional, legislative and collecting tax powers in the hands of the Union. It proceeds first to unpack the very idea of tax power, and to distinguish its elements. On such a basis, I proceed to consider European norms and practices, and to reconstruct on such a basis the tax powers of the Union. It is then found that the Union's tax powers are far wider than commonly asserted, especially on what concerns to the influence exerted on national and regional taxing powers by the Union's constitutional and legislative tax powers. However, the Union still presents most of the features characteristic of a regulatory entity. Having said that, a dynamic reconstruction of these same powers indicates that the Union is moving towards a rights-based polity, also on what concerns its taxing powers. There are clear indications that the problem-solving conception of the Union is insufficient to explain and ground the powers to tax in the hands of the Union.