This article draws up a critique of the hypothesis that suggests that the taxation of incomes, consumption and services is in itself a measure that is hard to justify and in any case negative from the point of view of the general public. The author, a well-known specialist of tax law, goes about this by explicitly distancing himself from contemporary utilitarian approaches and, in an attempt to expand the range of his theoretical references and to take in sociological considerations, outlines the model of an individual who is prepared to adopt an altruistic stance towards his obligations in the framework of the taxation system provided by the legal order in his own jurisdiction. In the process, he outlines the cultural and cognitive elements of a sociology of tax law that, by setting out to assimilate the basic tenets of rational choice theories, goes on to reappraise today’s demise of the nation-state against a backdrop that still assigns essential tasks to it for producing tools for regulating and maintaining social harmony.
Keywords: Tax law, Sociology, Rationality, Theory of decision-making, Taxpayers