Sabiedriskais līgums – mūsdienīgas nodokļu sistēmas priekšnosacījums

Social contract theory aims to show that the members of a society have a reason to support and respect the basic rules, laws, institutions and/or principles of that society. The payment of taxes is often enforced through penalties. Tax payment enforcement is important in the early stages of state formation, however, tax payment enforcement alone cannot ensure that mobile taxpayers are taxed. The next evolution of taxation is a system based on voluntary collection. Both public consent and the issue of tax justification are important for the application of a voluntary tax collection system. Good indicators of whether society is ready for a tax system focusing on voluntary mechanisms are GDP per capita, the shadow economy index and the corruption perception index. Latvia, for example, is still lagging behind Estonia on these indicators, but trends show that taxpayers are increasingly more ready to trust the system.