Xynas, Lidia ORCID: 0000-0002-0714-6497 and Xynas, Alexander (2021) Supporting Taxation’s extended ‘Purpose’ to encompass the Objective of Socially Engineering Human Behaviours. Journal of Australian Taxation, 23 (1). ISSN 1440-0405 (In Press)

Abstract

Taxation should not only be viewed as a legislative tool which provides revenues for policymakers to be able to then deliver social goods and services such as roads, health care, education and military protections. The fiscal raising aspect of taxation is also supplemented by another objective or purpose – the social engineering of human behaviours. This extended purpose of taxation can be supported by reference to three Pillars: Ethics, Law and Economics as bought together in this Article. This three Pillar approach can provide the basis for taxpayer confidence and acceptance of a policymaker’s approach to extending the purpose of taxation to encompass objectives of socially engineering human behaviours. This is especially important where the positives of such a policy approach outweigh the harms associated with certain defined human behaviours, for the individual and for broader society.

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