Thought & Research

In general

Falsitta's general reflections ⁽¹⁾ began in the year 2000, and focussed on the relationship between taxation and its social functions in a changing world. Taxable events, tax and tax systems are always considered from a perspective within which the fundamental references are subjected to an action of change, in particular, the effect of the permeation of technical reasoning.

Taxation – intended as the main instrument of social levelling – becomes the privileged observatory on the development of civilisation and an "outpost" for interpreting the social dangers associated with the extending dominance of technical thought.

Above Technology and the tax system

The economic and social changes produced and determined by technology require a flexible tax system ⁽²⁾ that is able to progressively move away from nineteenth century schemes and outdated axioms, without, therefore, undermining the principles of justice that the author considers intangible (progressiveness of the system; welfare function of tax, etc.). An awareness of the specific effects of technology on legal systems (and, of course, on their economic/financial parts) is an essential condition for entering the contemporary world and preventing systems from being subjected to the dominance of technology itself.

Above terminal tax systems and civil recourse

There is a belief: a) that tax systems are ‘terminal’ (and so too, therefore, are legal systems) b) that the development of civilisation, according to the traditional axiological approach, has not only come to a halt but has begun to move backwards. The regressive signs of civilisation seen in law (which produces norms that are increasingly distant from "legal principles" and increasingly closer to "technical rules") prompted Falsitta to shift his reflection to the heart of twentieth century philosophy of technology and sociology. The seed of regression is in the subjection of human thought to technical thought. Technology has changed the Man – technology – nature relationship to Technology – man – nature and, in doing so, has also subverted man's position within the legal system. Man is no longer central (according to the imposition of natural law), he is no longer the subject who liberates himself through law (which he holds in his own hands). It is technology that liberates man but, in doing so, it transforms him into an object of consumption (the author defines the relationship between Technology and Man as one of "feeding").

On the overcoming of technology and capitalism: the search for a new human thought

Falsitta's thesis, inspired by the fundamentals of Catholic Social Doctrine, is that there is still time to devise a way of thinking that brings technology back under human control.

The operation takes place in three stages:

the first: to agree on the "decontamination" of capitalism. Not on the abandonment of capitalism understood as an "economic concept", as an abstract "western culture", captured before the fall into distorting worldliness; but in agreement that action should be taken that recognises the causes of any negative externalities of capitalism itself ⁽³⁾ (e.g. information asymmetry, unfair treatment and other forms of unfair abuse etc. and from there, to tax evasion to corruption etc.);

the second: decontaminating capitalism – as a result of the symbiosis between capitalism and technology – has the effect of weakening technical thinking. But how do we decontaminate capitalism? We decontaminate it using technology. Or rather: technology, the practical expression of technical thinking. Thanks to technology, it is plausible to modify capitalism (by eliminating its negative externalities) through the weakening of technology (e.g. with the technology of locked registers and smart contracts);

the third moment: having weakened technical thought through the weakening of capitalism, the environmental conditions are created to work on the creation of stronger human thought that, as a consequence, is capable of escaping the domination of technical thought. The idea is a thought born of a new avidity: a third avidity that is balanced and equidistant, above the avidity of technology and capitalism (considered and not denigrated).

The European Union arose out of commercial needs and this characteristic heavily influences every decision it makes. If you take away the simulations, the pretence and the mask, the Union, stripped bare, shows that the wellbeing of the "free" market is the result that must be achieved by its policies, before anything else. The need to ensure the efficacy of social rights and the need for a free market, beyond words, are not placed on the same level.

There's more. The European Union also exerts a ‘de facto influence’ on the tax systems of the individual states (e.g. through the stability pact or the state aid regime) and, in doing so, affects domestic social policies, pushing them towards the supremacy of market protection over the protection of social rights ⁽⁴⁾. As such, Europe must change a number of fundamentals and, from this angle, devise its own authentic tax system. It must cease to play the role of tax "anti-sovereign"; it must cease to regard direct taxation as an "enemy", lurking in the neutrality within the privileged economic space. That approach must give way to a genuine, autonomous income tax system that could well be ushered in through a process of transferring shares of general taxation from individual states to the Union. Such embryonic taxation would not only better realise market policies, but also serve lay the foundations of a financing system for European social rights. The process (given the experience of previous attempts: Neumark Commetee, Ruding, Monti etc.) could start by transferring portions of the corporate tax to societies.

The creation of a space (Preamble of the Charter) where fundamental rights acquire substance and where they can be exercised in practice, means listening to the innermost guts of the human community (and not just the market). Consequently, devising a European tax system appears to be the main way to give continuity to the Union, and the states a means to overcome internal public finance crises (2005/2016).

¹ Prior to the year 2000, Falsitta's work mainly concerned the taxation function in terms of its procedural aspect (assessment), systems of evidence and the tax process.

² Here, space is given to the studies on ethical taxation (on 2 July 2003 he presented Bill no. 4130 to the Chamber of Deputies, containing: "Delegation to the Government in matters of ethical taxation and the promotion of sustainable development"); on the need to rethink the constitutional concept of the social function of property, restoring its relevance and dissuasive force; on tax codification (the translation of the German Tax Code AbgabenOrdnung is instrumental in stimulating the adoption of a code inspired by the works of Ezio Vanoni).

³ These are the prerequisites for the most severe and intolerable social (property and income) discrimination.

⁴ Without a thorough overhaul of commercial priorities, from a social point of view even recent environmentalist agendas will attempt to replace an old, flawed market (old because it is based on fossil fuels) with a new market that, however, retains the same flaws (because it is governed by the same rules). One business transaction is exchanged for another.