Basic Income as a Human Right?

This chapter suggests a human rights–based justification for national basic income schemes, contrasting it with justifications based on welfarist principles or notions of entitlement to a share of the global commons. Starting from the premise that a state is a collective enterprise that generates a surplus, it contends that any human being who is an “obedient” member of that state has a right to some share of the surplus. That right—which arises from the relationship between the individual and the state, and is independent of need—could justify the entitlement to a basic income. Such income should be provided in cash, not in kind, because the latter risks depriving the individual of the enjoyment of his share of the surplus—in effect, forcing him to forfeit or transfer it to others if he does not use the public goods or services provided by the state.

Creating a Human Rights Framework for Mapping and Addressing Corporate Tax Abuses

This chapter identifies several areas of convergence between the fields of tax policy and human rights. These include the concept of the corporation as a unitary entity; the notion of extraterritorial impacts and obligations of states and corporations; and the risks of corporate personhood. These principles are all highly relevant to corporations’ human rights due diligence and risk assessment of their tax policies. Applying a business and human rights perspective to international tax law can clarify responsibilities of companies toward their other stakeholders as well as their relationship with subsidiaries and business partners in terms of responsible tax conduct. The chapter then explores two dimensions of the human rights impacts of tax-related corporate decisions: impacts mediated by the state and impacts not mediated by the state.

Interrogating the Relationship between “Legally Defensible” Tax Planning and Social Justice

This chapter assesses where the ethical lines should be drawn around what constitutes “legally defensible tax planning,” given social justice imperatives. Because tax minimization by wealthy individuals and profitable corporations does not involve blatant fraud, one cannot simply call for “good corporate tax behavior” and criticize the ethics of those tax professionals who aid and abet the fraud. The tax-reducing strategies of super-rich individuals and highly profitable corporations commonly qualify as what will be called “legally defensible.” This term, however, covers tax planning that may vary across a range in at least three important dimensions: likelihood of legal correctness; consistency with legislative or regulatory intent; and ordinary course of business versus carefully contrived.

How Countries Should Share Tax Information

This chapter looks at exchange of information (EOI) policies, proposing several ways to make EOI policies fairer and more efficient, so as to maximize their potential to reduce illicit financial flows and curb abusive tax practices that undermine human rights. While there appears increasing policy and academic support for EOI initiatives that promote global financial transparency, the current international tax regime, with its high transaction costs for taxpayers and tax authorities, does not seem particularly amenable to producing optimal outcomes. The chapter then emphasizes how, to promote enforceability, the ideal EOI system delivers high-quality tax information while providing needed legal protections for taxpayer privacy. The exchange and usage of high-quality tax information would reduce transaction costs for tax authorities as they could more readily identify taxpayers engaged in offshore tax evasion and aggressive international tax planning.

Tax Abuse and Implications for Human Rights in Africa

This chapter analyzes whether the international tax reform measures instituted under the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) Project are effective in ensuring African countries get a fair share of taxes from multinational enterprises (MNEs) transacting within their borders, so that they can finance their development goals and promote the human rights of their citizens. The OECD chose to focus on curtailing sophisticated tax-avoidance schemes by strengthening existing anti-avoidance provisions. MNEs have abused these existing laws, however, making them largely ineffective. Given that MNEs are always a step ahead in devising new tax-avoidance strategies, one wonders whether emphasis on strengthening anti-avoidance laws will achieve much. The OECD seems to have missed an opportunity to evaluate the whole tax system and deal with the very root of the problems inherent in international taxation.

The Search for Human Rights in Tax

This chapter explores the prospects for bringing legal claims seeking accountability for human rights harms due to tax policies and practices. There are a number of ways in which an individual may raise a claim that their rights have been violated in connection with taxation, each of which generally depends on some recognized relationship between the claimant and the person, entity, or institution being asked to remedy the perceived wrong. Meanwhile, there are at least three distinct kinds of relationships involving the state that could theoretically give rise to human rights claims in respect of tax. These three relationships are those among, first, individuals and their own states; second, individuals and foreign states; and, third, states among themselves as members of the international community. In each case, organizations may be formed to represent the interests of individuals, but at stake in all cases is the protection of individual rights.

Taxation, Human Rights, and a Universal Basic Income

This concluding chapter explores the arguments for and against a universal basic income (UBI) in light of the provisions of international human rights law. To appreciate the significance of a UBI, at least in its comprehensive and ideal form, it is important to note that it is explicitly designed to challenge most of the key assumptions underpinning traditional social security systems. The most committed proponents of UBI proclaim their approach to be utopian, not in the sense of being unrealistic or unachievable, but as providing a highly ambitious, sweeping, and progressive vision. Meanwhile, critics or skeptics who raise objections based on unaffordability, the unacceptability of unconditionality, or the unrealistic change in mentality required will often be dismissed as unimaginative defenders of an obviously unsatisfactory status quo.

Inequality, Taxation, and Public Transfers in Latin America

This chapter looks at inequality trends and the redistributive potential of fiscal policies in Latin America. It suggests that increased mobilization of tax revenues from the middle class, the segment of society with the highest “tax morale,” could help rectify the frayed fiscal compact—the fragile agreement between the governed and the government about what sums the former owe as taxpayers and what services the latter provides in return. A new fiscal compact might be constructed around the Sustainable Development Goals, through a holistic approach focused on public tax revenues and spending priorities. The chapter then emphasizes the need to rely on direct taxation, which could help close the gap between the rich and the poor and improve the realization of human rights; to maximize the potential redistributive impacts of taxes and transfers; and to improve service delivery.

“Taxing for Growth” vs. “Taxing for Equality”—Using Human Rights to Combat Gender Inequalities, Poverty, and Income Inequalities in Fiscal Laws

This chapter highlights the inadequacy of current measures to mitigate the regressive impacts of value-added tax (VAT), particularly on women as individuals, female-headed households, and female-owned businesses. It argues that the text of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the CEDAW Committee’s jurisprudence, and the Beijing Platform all mandate the use of more progressive tax strategies, such as graduated personal income taxes and broader VAT exemptions to cover all basic needs, as well as gender-impact analysis of taxation and correction of discriminatory policies. In short, CEDAW and the Beijing Platform form a comprehensive global implementation framework designed to actively secure both formal and substantive equality in all laws, policies, and practices in all member countries, as well as in regional and global governance organizations.

Labor, Capital, and Human Rights

This chapter discusses how the US tax code—like many Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) country tax codes—favors capital over labor, and thereby is at odds with fundamental tenets of human rights and policy principles regarding equity. This bias in favor of capital may not only be counterproductive in terms of its impacts on revenue generation and tax administration. It also entrenches inequalities and disregards the ways in which the human body, with its labor capacity, is the most essential “asset” on which most people rely. Therefore, labor should enjoy the preferences, such as the realization principle and depreciation, from which capital currently benefits. The chapter then outlines a course of investigation for further study including contrasting Social Security old-age pension and disability benefits, and exploring the consequences of shifting property to accrual accounting while providing the human body with generous depreciation deductions and tax deferral through realization.