Ability to pay principle in tax law

Austrian Science Fund

The ability-to-pay Principle plays an important role in every discussion of tax policies. One as such undisputed position is that tax laws should be consistent with the ability-to-pay principle. However, it is much more difficult to specifically identify the contents of this principle. For this purpose, various and mostly rather vague statements are used. Some authors understand individual tax rules as mandatory realization of the ability-to-pay principle while others regard one and the same rule as unconditionally contradicting the ability-to-pay principle. This situation shows that this principle lacks specificity, a fact that has recently become obvious in connection with the problems in connection with accruals.