Does the Czech Parliament Follow Tax Law Drafting Principles?

Radvan, Michal (2024) Does the Czech Parliament Follow Tax Law Drafting Principles? LAW IDENTITY AND VALUES, 4 (1). pp. 185-202. ISSN 2786-2542

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Abstract

Tax law regulation must be clear and easy to understand and apply. It must consider the level of knowledge of taxpayers, and it must follow the terminology used in other branches of law. The legislator should also be receptive to the economic aspects of private and business life. The tax office should create conditions to make filing tax returns easy and not time-consuming, ideally online, with prefilled fields and automatic calculation. Only if these requirements are fulfilled might tax administration be cheap and effective without additional compliance costs (for both taxpayers and tax administrators). To meet all of these requirements, it seems necessary for the legislator to follow tax law drafting principles. It should also be stated that these principles play an essential role not only in the process of tax law drafting but also in the interpretation and application of tax law norms. The main aim of this study was to answer the question from its title: Does the Czech Parliament follow tax law drafting principles? The hypothesis that the Czech Parliament follows tax law drafting principles when adopting tax law was confirmed. However, considering history, several exceptions and cases show that this statement does not apply in all situations. The breach of principles is not caused by a lack of the principles or unclear principles but by their application by the Parliament. To achieve a good quality tax law, it seems sufficient to follow the principles, especially for politicians. The legislator should know the tax law drafting principles described and critically analysed in this article: 1. basic principles, 2. self-application principles, 3. tax justice principles, 4. economic nature principles, and 5. professionality principles.

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