Primacy of the state

Primacy of the state is a concept in tax policy is where tax assessment is applied by government for the purpose of social engineering, redistribution of wealth, or operational convenience of the state, and where the relationship between the level of tax assessment for a particular taxpayer and the government service and benefits provided him is secondary or lacking. The state, or the judgment of the state, in this case, is deemed superior to the native property rights of the individual, for the collective good or other reason, in the judgment of government lawmakers who create and impose the tax. The amount of wealth, or condition provided, is the equity of condition that lawmakers believe is warranted the individual.

An example for primacy of the state is a tobacco excise tax, where the tax revenue paid by purchasers of tobacco is used to finance general government expenditures. The tobacco excise tax, in this case, may be implemented for social engineering purposes—to dissuade people from buying tobacco for health reasons—or it may be implemented for operational convenience of the state—to easily generate government revenue. The potential tobacco purchaser in the first case loses a lower-cost purchase option, and in the second case pays a premium that benefits other people, disproportionately from the tobacco purchasers, through redistribution of wealth. Although tobacco purchasers may also benefit from the tax revenue generated from the tax, they only do so incrementally because the tobacco purchasers pay all of the tax and receive only a fraction of the service and benefits that the government revenue finances.

Primacy of the state is implemented at a greater level in those economies which emphasize governmental social management and redistribution, and less so in economies which emphasize laissez-faire economic practices.

See also

*Income tax
*Primacy of the citizen and taxpayer
*Real property use tax
*Taxation in the United States

Reference

*Citation |last= Gillis |first= Timothy J. |title= Taxation and National Destiny: A Tax Systems Analysis and Proposal |publisher= (San Diego: Maximus Profectus) |year= 1999 |isbn= 0-9667434-1-5 | . p.135