Intersentia Building Trust in Taxation

The contemporary tax landscape is experiencing a legitimacy crisis caused by macro-economic disturbances in the past decade, as well as numerous revelations in the media such as Swissleaks, Luxleaks and the Panama Papers. This crisis has resulted in people losing trust in their government and in corporations, thereby becoming more reluctant to give their share of money for redistribution.Why are states or collective institutions not able to generate the sufficient level of trust that would enable them to collect enough revenue? Who or what is responsible for the decline in trust? What are the key factors contributing to the decline in trust? Why do the levels of trust differ between states? Is this strictly a fiscal issue, meaning that we should search for the root of the issue only in the properties of tax systems and the differences between tax systems? Or are there institutional structures and political ideologies which differ from state to state that might be able to explain this difference?Written by experts in their field and with an interdisciplinary perspective Building Trust in Taxation analyses a topical issue which is integral to the development of society. From the Back Cover The contemporary tax landscape is experiencing a legitimacy crisis caused by macro-economic disturbances in the past decade, as well as numerous revelations in the media such as Swissleaks, Luxleaks and the Panama Papers. This crisis has resulted in people losing trust in their government and in corporations, thereby becoming more reluctant to give their share of money for redistribution. Why are states or collective institutions not able to generate the sufficient level of trust that would enable them to collect enough revenue? Who or what is responsible for the decline in trust? What are the key factors contributing to the decline in trust? Why do the levels of trust differ between states? Is this strictly a fiscal issue, meaning that we should search for the root of the issue only in the properties of tax systems and the differences between tax systems? Or are there institutional structures and political ideologies which differ from state to state that might be able to explain this difference? Written by experts in their field and with an interdisciplinary perspective Building Trust in Taxation analyses a topical issue which is integral to the development of society. Bruno Peeters is a senior Full Professor and former Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Antwerp. He studied law (Lic. Iuris, 1982) and philosophy (Bac. Philosophy, 1979) at the University of Antwerp where he also obtained his PhD (1988) and where he is Director of the Master of Tax Law and Director of the Antwerp Tax Academy. He was visiting Professor in Tax Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Bologna (2008-2009) and guest lecturer at several other European universities. He is assessor at the Belgian Council of State, Legislation Section and member of the Antwerp Bar, practising in the field of tax law. Hans Gribnau is a Professor of Tax Law at the Fiscal Institute and the Center for Company Law of Tilburg University and at Leiden University. In 2007 he received the Jan Giele-award for his ‘substantial contribution to just taxation in the Netherlands.’ In 2013 he was visiting professor at Antwerp University. He is currently the chair of the Dutch Spinoza association (‘Vereniging Het Spinozahuis’). He is member of the jury of the VBDO-Tax Transparency Award. He teaches methodology of tax law, procedural tax law and research skills. His current research interests lie in the quality of tax regulation, the regulatory use of tax law, governance and tax ethics. Jo Badisco is a doctoral researcher at the department of philosophy at the University of Antwerp. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Antwerp Tax Academy and studied philosophy (Bachelor, Master and MPhil) at the University of Leuven. His current research i